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Hibiscus lunariifolius; photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-02-01

Hibiscus lunariifolius Willd.

Hibiscus

Malvaceae · India, Sri Lanka

No habitat climate
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Hibiscus lunariifolius, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Hibiscus lunariifolius, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Hibiscus lunariifolius, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Hibiscus lunariifolius, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Hibiscus lunariifolius, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Hibiscus lunariifolius, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 34 photographs ›

Summary

Hibiscus lunariifolius, the lunaria-leaf hibiscus, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae, native to India and Sri Lanka, and introduced to quite a number of seasonally dry tropical areas in Africa. It is cultivated in Nigeria for its fiber, a good quality analog of jute.

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

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

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: Only 1 distinct land cell of the climate grid holds an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope. 1 of the 2 in-range records is placed to worse than 10 km, or to no stated accuracy and fewer than three decimals or by something other than a person's observation, and cannot place a climate cell, though it counts for the map and its marker.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeIndia, Sri Lanka · introduced: Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Northern Provinces, Jamaica · 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).
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 2 georeferenced records inside the native range, all openly licensed and shown on the map. 125 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the map. No climate across the range is derived for this species. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stays on the map but off the climate.

Photographs

Hibiscus lunariifolius, photograph 1did not loadHibiscus lunariifolius, photograph 2did not loadHibiscus lunariifolius, photograph 3did not loadHibiscus lunariifolius, photograph 4did not loadHibiscus lunariifolius, photograph 5did not loadHibiscus lunariifolius, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (6).

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 Cotyloplecta dongolensis; Cotyloplecta macrantha; Hibiscus petiolosus; Hibiscus pruriens; Hibiscus racemosus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Willd.
Native to
India, Sri Lanka
Wild records
2 in range · 2 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 2026-10-22
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; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22only 1 distinct land cell of the climate grid holds an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 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 20 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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