Hibiscus bifurcatus Cav.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Malvaceae

• Scientific Name

  Hibiscus bifurcatus Cav.

• Description

  
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  Species Description - This large-flowered, shrubby plant is occasional in Porto Rico, usually growing in thickets, or along streams, in the moist or wet districts, ascending to higher elevations; it occurs also on several other West Indian islands, and has a wide distribution in continental tropical America. Several or many plants may sometimes be seen in proximity. Although its flowers are conspicuous we have no knowledge of its introduction into gardens as an ornamental plant, and its prickly stems make it doubtfully desirable. The genus Hibiscus, so well known in gardens through the cultivation, in many races and varieties, of the Amapola or Chinese Rose. Hibiscus Rosasinensis originally native in tropical Asia, consists of 180 species, or more, natives of both temperate and tropical regions of the New World and the Old. The generic name, adopted by Linnaeus from his predecessors, in his Species Plantarum in 1753, is an ancient one, recorded as used by the Greek author Dioscorides for the Marsh Mallow. Additional to the one here illustrated, 4 others are native in Porto Rico, and 2 others have been seen locally more or less naturalized after cultivation. Hibiscus bifurcatus, is a branched, rough, hairy shrub, about 2 meters high, or lower, or sometimes longer and vine-like, occasionally reaching a length of 5 meters; its branches, leaf-stalks and veins are aimed with minute, reflexed, broad-based prickles, the plant thus clinging to adjacent vegetation. The long-stalked leaves are about 10 centimeters long, or shorter, heart-shaped at the base, more or less deeply 3-lobed, the lobes pointed, and usually toothed; the upper leaves are much smaller than the lower. The stout-stalked, solitary flowers are borne with the upper leaves; as in all species of the genus the calyx is subtended by a ring (involucre) of narrow organs (bractlets), which in this one are hairy, from 1.5 centimeters to 2 centimeters long, and 2-forked, whence the specific name bifurcatus; the calyx is about as long as these bractlets, with 5 short, pointed lobes; the 5, pink or rose petals are from 6 to 9 centimeters long; the column of stamens is much shorter than the petals. The fruit is a 5-valved capsule, about as long as the calyx or a little longer, which splits to discharge the numerous, smooth, but minutely papillate seeds.

• Discussion

  Buenos Dias Rough Pink Hibiscus Mallow Family Hibiscus bifurcatus Cavanneilles, Dissertationes 3: 146. 1787.