Abelmoschus sagittifolius (Kurz) Merr.

This species is grown as an ornamental.

Herbs perennial, 0.4-1(-2) m tall, most parts densely pubescent, sometimes also setose or stellate hairy; rootstock fleshy, radish-shaped, to 5 cm thick. Branchlets scabrous and hirsute with long hairs. Petiole 4-8 cm, sparsely long hirsute; leaf blades variable; blades on proximal part of stem ovate, those on middle and distal parts ovate-hastate, sagittate, or palmately 3-5-lobed or -parted, lobes broadly ovate or broadly lanceolate, 3-10 cm, abaxially long hirsute, adaxially sparsely spiny, base cordate or hastate, margin serrate or lobed, apex obtuse. Flowers solitary, axillary. Pedicel slender, 4-7 cm, densely scabrous hirsute. Epicalyx lobes 6-12, filiform, ca. 15 × 1-1.7 mm, sparsely hirsute, spreading or reflexed. Calyx spatulate, ca. 7 mm, apex 5-toothed, densely minutely puberulent. Corolla mostly white or pale yellow to dark pink, 4-5 cm in diam.; petals obovate-oblong, 3-4 cm. Staminal column ca. 2 cm, glabrous. Style branches 5; stigma flat. Capsule ellipsoid, ca. 3 × 2 cm, spiny, shortly beaked. Seeds reniform, glandularly reticulately striate. Fl. May-Sep.

Open Pinus forests, hills, grassy slopes, wastelands. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Yunnan [Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia].

Hibiscus sagittifolius Kurz, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 40: 46. 1871; Abelmoschus coccineus S. Y. Hu; A. coccineus var. acerifolius S. Y. Hu; A. esquirolii (H. Léveillé) S. Y. Hu; A. moschatus Medikus subsp. tuberosus (Spanoghe) Borssum Waalkes; A. sagittifolius var. septentrionalis (Gagnepain) Merrill; H. bellicosus H. Léveillé; H. bodinieri H. Léveillé var. brevicalyculatus H. Léveillé; H. esquirolii H. Léveillé; H. longifolius Willdenow var. tuberosus Spanoghe; H. sagittifolius var. septentrionalis Gagnepain.