Red Kauai rosemallow

Hawaiian hibiscus are the seven known species of hibiscus regarded as native to Hawai?i. Although tourists regularly associate the hibiscus flower with their experiences visiting the US state of Hawai?i, and the plant family Malvaceae includes a relatively large number of species that are native to the Hawaiian Islands, those flowers presented to or regularly observed by tourists are generally not the native hibiscus flowers. Most commonly grown as ornamental plants in the Islands are the Chinese hibiscus and its numerous hybrids.

Hibiscus clayi differs from Hibiscus kokio in a few ways: 1. Leaves of H. clayi are smooth, or occasionally toothed only near tip; H. kokio leaves are toothed from below middle to the tip (sometimes smooth). 2. H. clayi is restricted to Kaua?i; H. kokio is naturally found on Kaua?i, O?ahu, Moloka?i, Maui and Hawai?i. 3. H. More

The Plants of Hawaii site contains photographs of Hibiscus clayi in cultivation, as well as a resource page about the species. More

Hibiscus clayi A thank you to frolickauai@Flickr for today''s first-time contribution to Botany Photo of the Day (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Much appreciated! Do investigate frolickauai''s other photographs on Flickr – plenty of plant photographs. Hibiscus clayi, or Clay''s hibiscus (or Hawaiian red hibiscus), is an extremely rare plant in the wild; as frolickauai notes: “This flower is on one of only four naturally occurring members of Hibiscus clayi in the wild.”. The wild, in this case, is Kaua‘i, Hawaii. More