Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Shoeflower / Hibiscus rosa-sinensis - 2


Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, known colloquially as the Chinese hibiscus, China rose and shoe flower, is an evergreen flowering shrub native to East Asia.

It is widely grown as an ornamental plant throughout the tropics and subtropics. The flowers are large, generally red in the original varieties, and firm, but generally lack any scent. Numerous varieties, cultivars, and hybrids are available, with flower colors ranging from white through yellow and orange to scarlet and shades of pink, with both single and double sets of petals. Despite their size and red hues attractive to nectar-feeding birds, they are not visited regularly by hummingbirds when grown in the Neotropics. Generalists, like the Sapphire-spangled Emerald, Amazilia lactea, or long-billed species, like the Stripe-breasted Starthroat, Heliomaster squamosus, are occasionally seen to visit it, however.[1] In the subtropical and temperate Americas, hummingbirds are attracted to them on a regular basis.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis was named by Carolus Linnaeus. It has many names in Chinese: chijin 赤槿、riji 日及、fusang 扶桑、fosang 佛桑、hongfusang 红扶桑、hongmujin 红木槿、sangjin 桑槿、huohonghua 火红花、zhaodianhong 照殿红、songjin 宋槿、erhonghua 二红花、huashanghua 花上花、tuhonghua 土红花、jiamudan 假牡丹 and zhongguoqiangwei 中国蔷薇. Each of these many names is from a different state in China, each state having its own name for the plant. It also has prominent presence in the various part of Indian subcontinent. It has several names in different languages, Bengali: জবা (Jaba), Sembaruthi-செம்பருத்தி in Tamil, Hindi: गुड़हल, Chemparathy in Malayalam, Mondaro in Oriya,Wada Mal in Sinhala, and Mamdaram (మందారం) in Telugu.

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