Family Malvaceae - PART 1

The Plant Family Malvaceae also known as the Mallow family contains a number of plants that are no doubt familiar to many who live in the Pacific Region as well as those who have been in the region. The most common or popular being the ever present and colourful hibiscus which comes in an astonishing variety of colours, shapes and sizes.

However, among the members of this family are some which hold a few surprises either in that people do not realise that they are closely related to the hibiscus such as the Beach Hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus) which to most appears to treelike to be belong to the same genus.

Beach Hibiscus,  Hibiscus tiliaceus

Binomial Name: Hibiscus tiliaceus

Common names: Beach Hibiscus, Sea Hibiscus, Coastal Hibiscus, Coast Hibiscus, Cottonwood, Green Cottonwood, Native Hibiscus, Native Rosella, Cottonwood Hibiscus, Kurrajong, Sea Rosemallow, Norfolk Hibiscus  (English); Fau (Samoan); Hau (Hawaiian); Purau (Tahitian)

Taxonomy: Unranked: Angiosperms – Unranked:  Eudicots –  Unranked: Rosids –   Order: Malavales– Family: Malvaceae – Genus: Hibiscus – Species: H. tiliaceus

Then there is the Sleeping Hibiscus, Malvaviscus pendiflorus which although it belongs to the same family is actually from a different genus altogether.

Sleeping Hibiscus, Malvaviscuc penduliflorus



Binomial Name: Malvaviscuc penduliflorus  

Common names: turk’s cap, Turk’s Cap Mallow, Sleeping Hibiscus, Ladies Teardrop, Wax mallow and Mazapan  (English) Aute(Samoan)

Taxonomy: Unranked: Angiosperms – Unranked:  Eudicots –  Unranked: Rosids – Order:  Malvales – Family: Malvaceae – Subfamily: Malvoideae – Tribe: Hibisceae –Genus –Malvaviscus - Species: Malvaviscus penduliflorus  

Other species: Malvaviscus arboreu,. Malvaviscus palmanus

NOTE: Plant this if you want to attract hummingbirds or other honeyeaters to your garden.

Then there is the Common Hollyhock,Alcea rosea  which closely resembles the common hibiscus in the structure and appearance of its flowers although its seed pods and the whole plant structure as well as the way in which the flowers are presented is distinctly different.

Common Hollyhock, Alcea rosea

Common Hollyhock, Alcea rosea

Binomial Name: Alcea rosea
Common names: Common Hollyhock  (English) ?(Samoan)
Taxonomy: Unranked: Angiosperms – Unranked:  Eudicots –  Unranked: Rosids – Order:  Malvales – Family: Malvaceae –Genus –Alcea - Species: Alcea rosea
Other species: Alcea biennis (Biennial Hollyhock)

Another strange character in the Malvaceae family is the Rose Mallow, Hibiscus syriacus  or Rose of Sharon (an name it shares with another plant  Jerusalem star, Hypericum calycinum)

Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus

Binomial Name: Hibiscus syriacus

Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms– Class: Eudicots –  Unranked: Rosids  –  Order: Malavales– Family: Malvaceae – Genus: Hibiscus – Species: H. Syriacus

Common names: Rose of Sharon, Rose Mallow, St Jospeh’s rod (English); Hibiscus syriacus (French); Rosa de Siria (Spanish); Ibisco cinese (Italian) Tuinhibiscus (Dutch); Straucheibisch, Scharonrose, Syrischer Eibisch, Garteneibisch, Festblume(German)

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Rose of Sharon - A rose with multiple identities

After posting a blue hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus) it was pointed out to me that one of its common names was Rose of Sharon.

Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus)

The name sounded familiar so I looked it up and sure enough aside for finding out that other flowers have been given that name to the confusion of people, there among the flowers sharing the name was the one that I photographed before (Hypericum calycinum).


Rose of Sharon Hypericum calycinum

The name has biblical roots and is first mentioned in the King James bible of 1611. Aside from scholarly discussion as to errors in that translation there is also much discussion as to which flower the original passage referred to. Among the contenders are the Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum) and the Sea Daffodil (Pancratium maritimum), neither of which I have any photos although you can easily do a search on the internet if you desperately want to see what they look like.

Today the two flowers above are also known as Rose of Sharon. For the Hibiscus syriacus several cultivars exist which go by the following names 'Diana' (pure white), 'Oiseau Bleu' (blue-violet with maroon centre), 'Hamabo' (pale pink with deep red centre), 'Red Heart' (white with deep red centre), 'Woodridge' (deep pink), 'Lavender Chiffon' (pale lilac)

I think it would be safe to say that the blue one is "Oiseau Bleu' and this one below is Lavender Chiffon.

Hibiscus syriacus

Such confusion is just one reason that illustrates the importance of finding out and using the binomial/scientific names although it does not preclude the use of the common/vernacular names. In fact it helps to know what other names a plant might have since in many cases aside from some common names having no bearing on each other in other languages languages (i.e. the translation is not literal) there a re many cases of plants being given different names by people of different regions speaking the same language or even people in the same place simply knowing a plant by completely different common names.

Acknowledgments:

Jan Harker Reyes: identification of Hibiscus syriacus as Rose of Sharon

Additional Information:

Binomial Name: Hibiscus syriacus Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms– Class: Eudicots –  Unranked: Rosids  –  Order: Malavales– Family: Malvaceae – Genus: Hibiscus – Species: H. Syriacus Common names: Rose of Sharon, Rose Mallow, St Jospeh’s rod (English); Hibiscus syriacus (French); Rosa de Siria (Spanish); Ibisco cinese (Italian) Tuinhibiscus (Dutch); Straucheibisch, Scharonrose, Syrischer Eibisch, Garteneibisch, Festblume(German)

Binomial Name: Hypericum calycinum Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms– Class: Eudicots –  Unranked: Rosids  –  Order: Malpighiales – Family: Hypericaceae – Genus: Hypericum – Species: H. Calycium Common names: Rose of Sharon, Aaron’s Beard, Great St-John’s wort, Jerusalem Star (English); Millepertuis à grandes fleurs (French); Großkelchige Johanniskraut (German)


Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/