3. Hibiscus syriacus L. (rose of Sharon)
Pl. 452 h; Map
2053
Plants shrubs or
small trees. Stems 200–600 cm long, erect or ascending, sparsely to moderately
hairy when young, becoming glabrous or nearly so with age, the twigs usually
light brown. Leaf blades 3–10 cm long, ovate in outline, mostly deeply 3-lobed,
the lobes sometimes shallowly lobed again, the margins coarsely scalloped or
bluntly toothed, the upper surface glabrous, the undersurface glabrous or
sparsely pubescent with stellate or simple hairs. Stipules more or less
persistent. Bractlets subtending the calyx 8–10, 8–18 mm long, glabrous or
finely pubescent with stellate hairs. Calyces 10–15 mm long at flowering, not
becoming enlarged or inflated at fruiting, finely pubescent with stellate
hairs. Petals 3–5 cm long, white or cream-colored to pink or purple, usually
with dark reddish purple bases. Fruits 1.5–2.5 cm long, ovoid to
ovoid-cylindric, noticeably beaked, hairy, yellow. Seeds 5–8 per locule,
4.0–4.5 mm long, broadly kidney-shaped to nearly, semicircular in outline, the
surface minutely roughened or with a faint pattern of reticulate ridges, dark
brown, glabrous, the margin densely pubescent with a line of spreading, simple
or fasciculate, orangish tan hairs. 2n=80, 90, 92. July–September.
Introduced,
uncommon and widely scattered in the state (native of Asia, sporadically
escaped from cultivation in North America). Banks of streams and rivers,
bottomland forests, and mesic upland forests; also roadsides, railroads, and
open disturbed areas.
Hibiscus
syriacus is commonly
cultivated as an ornamental shrub. Flower color is highly variable and some
cultivars have doubled corollas. It often persists at old home sites, but only
rarely becomes established in self-reproducing populations outside cultivation.