Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Hibiscus vitifolius; photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2008-04-26

Hibiscus vitifolius L.

Tropical Fanleaf; Tropical rose mallow

Malvaceae · The Gambia, Ghana +53

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Hibiscus vitifolius, photograph (c) Shikha Sreenivas, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hibiscus vitifolius, photograph (c) Shikha Sreenivas, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hibiscus vitifolius, photograph (c) Shikha Sreenivas, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hibiscus vitifolius, photograph (c) Shikha Sreenivas, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hibiscus vitifolius, photograph (c) Shikha Sreenivas, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hibiscus vitifolius, photograph (c) Shikha Sreenivas, some rights reserved (CC BY) 102 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.5°C
Record low 10.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jan, Feb, Mar and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
849mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–42DLI
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 May to September (November to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Hibiscus vitifolius, the grape-leaved mallow or tropical rose mallow, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It is native to the seasonally dry Old World tropics and subtropics, and has been introduced to the West indies. A perennial herb reaching 2 m (6 ft) and becoming woody at maturity, it is found in a wide variety of habitats, and is a weed of cultivation. It is used locally as a source of fiber, often mixed with jute.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hibiscus vitifolius", 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

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (544 mm of 713 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.8 °C against a yearly mean of 23.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

713 mm in the median year at the habitat, 544 mm of it November to March. Wettest month February at 132 mm, driest months (2 at 11 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 546 mm to 1,408 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 849 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 713 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 42 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.5 °C, the absolute minimum 10.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 9.9 °C to 23.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.3 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 61% 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +835 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. 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

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Hibiscus vitifolius through the yearWarmest months January, February, March and December, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 13.1 °C; 713 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°30.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 25–42RH 54–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 279 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 27–3330 / 28–3230 / 27–3228 / 26–3326 / 24–3124 / 21–3024 / 21–3025 / 22–3128 / 25–3329 / 26–3429 / 27–3530 / 27–33
Night °C22 / 20–2622 / 20–2521 / 19–2519 / 17–2616 / 13–2514 / 11–2413 / 10–2314 / 11–2317 / 14–2419 / 16–2420 / 18–2522 / 19–26
Rain mm126 / 77–302132 / 62–29786 / 56–19850 / 30–13727 / 11–8615 / 5–5311 / 2–4311 / 0–3916 / 2–5239 / 17–10482 / 48–150118 / 84–206
DLI39 / 35–4237 / 35–3936 / 33–4031 / 28–3827 / 25–3525 / 23–3326 / 24–3531 / 28–3837 / 32–4341 / 33–4642 / 34–4640 / 35–44
RH %61 / 57–6561 / 57–6660 / 56–6559 / 54–6557 / 51–6455 / 50–6354 / 49–6254 / 49–6255 / 50–6356 / 51–6458 / 53–6559 / 56–65

Records on both sides of the equator: the 94 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 279 cells that remain: the 229 at least 10° south and the 50 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 279 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (348 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 1746:4338 (2.675, 36.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.1 °C. 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 279 distinct grid cells holding 348 of the 467 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (94 cells poleward of 10° north, 229 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1746:4338 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 2.50_36.875, lapse-corrected +835 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1708 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.
NativeThe Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Togo, Cameroon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Laccadive Is., Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Sulawesi, Christmas I., New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia · introduced: Society Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is. · 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 marker-24.625, 31.556 · in the densest population, 109 records (14% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 755 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 348 of them in the land cells it reads, of 467 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 546 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11554 km away. 53 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 288 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 of the 755 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

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

Photographs: (c) Shikha Sreenivas, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Albizia forbesii Albizia forbesii Broad-pod Albizia Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian du PreezStrychnos decussata Strychnos decussata Cape-Teak Photo: CC0, author not statedEuphorbia knuthii Euphorbia knuthii Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank VincentzBridelia cathartica Bridelia cathartica Blue sweetberry Photo: CC0, author not statedStrophanthus petersianus Strophanthus petersianus Corky-Stemmed Poisonroot Photo: CC0, author not statedBalanites maughamii Balanites maughamii Manduro Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshaw

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 Hibiscus suarezensis; Hibiscus vitifolius var. genuinus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
The Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast +52
Wild records
755 in range · 546 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; 13 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 2.50_36.875, lapse-corrected +835 m at 6.5 °C/km
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 71 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…