Shrubs evergreen, 1-3 m tall. Branchlets terete, sparsely stellate pilose. Stipules filiform, 5-12 mm, hairy; petiole 5-20 mm, villous; leaf blade broadly or narrowly ovate, not lobed, 4-9 × 2-5 cm, papery, pilose on veins abaxially only, base rounded or cuneate, margin dentate or lobed, apex acuminate. Flowers solitary, axillary on upper branches, usually pendulous, simple or double. Pedicel 3-7 cm, sparsely stellate pilose or nearly glabrous, articulate near apex. Epicalyx lobes 6-7, filiform, connate at base, 8-15 mm, sparsely stellate, apex obtuse or acute. Calyx campanulate, ca. 2 cm, stellate puberulent, lobes 5, ovate to lanceolate. Corolla rosy red, reddish, or orange-yellow, funnel-shaped, 6-10 cm in diam., often double; petals obovate, pilose abaxially, apex rounded. Staminal column 4-8 cm, glabrous. Style branches 5. Capsule ovoid, ca. 2.5 cm, glabrous, apex beaked. Fl. year-round.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is a very popular flowering shrub or houseplant with a great many cultivars. Plants with double flowers have been named as var. rubroplenus Sweet (重瓣朱槿 chong ban zhu jin).

● Cultivated as an ornamental. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [not known in the wild but believed to have originated in China; now widely cultivated].