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Hibiscus indicus (Burm.f.) Hochr.

Malvaceae · China South-Central, China Southeast +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Hibiscus indicus (Burm.f.) Hochr.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Burm.fil.) Hochr.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
19.4°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,560mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 10 records in 5 grid cells. The records.

About the genus · Hibiscus

Hibiscus is a genus of plants in the family Malvaceae native to the tropics and subtropics. The genus is quite large, comprising 319 species. Hibiscus are renowned for their large, showy flowers and those species are commonly known simply as "hibiscus", or less widely known as rose mallow. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hibiscus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,910 mm of 2,560 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.9 °C against a yearly mean of 24.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

2,560 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,910 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 546 mm, driest month January at 37 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,242 mm to 2,690 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,560 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,560 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 18.0 °C to 20.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.0 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 19.4 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 71% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 10 records in 5 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Hibiscus indicus through the yearWarmest months June, July, August and September, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 19.4 °C; 2,560 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 22–38RH 62–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 5 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C21 / 20–2222 / 21–2223 / 23–2425 / 25–2527 / 26–2728 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2826 / 26–2624 / 24–2522 / 21–22
Night °C19 / 18–2020 / 19–2121 / 20–2223 / 22–2425 / 24–2526 / 25–2626 / 26–2726 / 25–2726 / 25–2625 / 23–2523 / 22–2320 / 19–21
Rain mm37 / 33–3942 / 35–4342 / 35–4559 / 49–64198 / 174–208465 / 408–488492 / 434–515546 / 486–570407 / 353–433148 / 124–15882 / 70–8542 / 37–44
DLI24 / 24–2428 / 27–2834 / 33–3438 / 38–3937 / 36–3836 / 35–3738 / 37–3935 / 34–3633 / 33–3431 / 31–3226 / 26–2622 / 22–22
RH %62 / 59–6563 / 60–6664 / 62–6766 / 63–6867 / 64–7071 / 68–7370 / 68–7370 / 68–7367 / 64–6964 / 61–6663 / 60–6562 / 59–65

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 24% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 14.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells holding the 10 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1359:6016 (22.025, 120.825). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 5 distinct grid cells holding 10 of the 10 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1359:6016 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 24% land and none of the 4 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 22.00_120.625, lapse-corrected +88 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 112 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan · introduced: Vietnam, Costa Rica, Cuba · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker24.681, 105.335 · in the densest population, 54 records (58% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 93 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 10 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 43 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 436 km away. 27 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 83 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 93 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Alpinia koshunensis Alpinia koshunensis Zingiberaceae Photo: CC0, 葉子Astronia ferruginea Astronia ferruginea Melastomataceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSuregada aequorea Suregada aequorea Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, 五色鳥Neolitsea buisanensis Neolitsea buisanensis Lauraceae Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te Hsu Syzygium kusukusuense Myrtaceae Excoecaria formosana Excoecaria formosana Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Hazel Chang

Other Hibiscus 54 in the reference

Hibiscus acetosella Hibiscus acetosella Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, ZuinHibiscus aethiopicus Hibiscus aethiopicus Cape Hibiscus Photo: CC BY, Martjie Fia Fourie Hibiscus aridicola Malvaceae Hibiscus arnottianus Hibiscus arnottianus White Molokai Hibiscus Photo: CC0, author not statedHibiscus biseptus Hibiscus biseptus Arizona rose-mallow Photo: CC BY, Jose Luis Leon de la LuzHibiscus boryanus Hibiscus boryanus Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Planete TerreHibiscus calyphyllus Hibiscus calyphyllus Lemonyellow rosemallow Photo: CC0, author not statedHibiscus clayi Hibiscus clayi Clay's hibiscus Photo: CC0, author not statedHibiscus coccineus Hibiscus coccineus Scarlet rose-mallow Photo: CC0, author not statedHibiscus columnaris Hibiscus columnaris Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Claude Marodon Hibiscus cooperi Malvaceae Hibiscus coulteri Hibiscus coulteri Desert rose-mallow Photo: CC BY, Ulises Pinedo all 55 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Abelmoschus venustus; Alcea indica; Althaea indica; Hibiscus javanicus; Hibiscus platystegius and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(Burm.f.) Hochr.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan
Wild records
93 in range · 43 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7279059 is Hibiscus indicus (Burm.fil.) Hochr.; the page links Kew's Hibiscus indicus (Burm.f.) Hochr., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 22.00_120.625, lapse-corrected +88 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (24% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 17 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…