Abelmoschus manihot(L.) Medik.

WFO wfo-0000510878 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Abelmoschus manihot, photographed by Jon Sullivan
fig. a Jon Sullivan, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-18 / obs. 191042412
Abelmoschus manihot, photographed by S.MORE
fig. b S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 96231191
Abelmoschus manihot, photographed by S.MORE
fig. c S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 94273093
Abelmoschus manihot, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. d Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 117579785
Abelmoschus manihot, photographed by S.MORE
fig. e S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 96231887
Abelmoschus manihot, photographed by Seema Merchant
fig. f Seema Merchant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 158366350
Abelmoschus manihot, photographed by Saban-Sequén, E.A.
fig. g Saban-Sequén, E.A., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 83299100
Abelmoschus manihot, photographed by S.MORE
fig. h S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 98362721

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 24 botanical countries

Regions where Abelmoschus manihot is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Christmas I., East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Queensland China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastAssamBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaQueensland Christmas I.
Native distribution of Abelmoschus manihot, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Christmas I. XMS
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 154 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -4.2 °C 13.8 °C 23.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.1 °C 28.4 °C 39.9 °C
Annual rainfall 877 mm 2,462 mm 4,202 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 265 mm 727 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 154 research-grade observations of Abelmoschus manihot that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 43 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Abelmoschus ficulneoides Walp.
  • Abelmoschus luzonensis Merr.
  • Abelmoschus maculatus Bartl.
  • Abelmoschus manihot f. platidactylis Bakh.
  • Abelmoschus manihot var. dissecta Anon.
  • Abelmoschus manihot var. luzonensis (Merr.) Hochr.
  • Abelmoschus manihot var. megaspermus Hemadri
  • Abelmoschus manihot var. mindanaensis (Warb. ex Perkins) Hochr.
  • Abelmoschus manihot var. palmatus (DC.) Endl.
  • Abelmoschus manihot var. tetraphyllus (Roxb. ex Hornem.) Hochr.
  • Abelmoschus manihot var. timorensis (DC.) Hochr.
  • Abelmoschus mindanaensis Warb. ex Perkins
  • Abelmoschus multilobatus Merr.
  • Abelmoschus pentaphyllus Voigt
  • Abelmoschus platidactylus (Bakh.) Nakai
  • Abelmoschus pseudomanihot (DC.) Endl.
  • Abelmoschus pungens (Roxb.) Voigt
  • Abelmoschus pungens var. mizoramensis K.J.John, Krishnaraj & K.Pradheep
  • Abelmoschus tetraphyllus (Roxb. ex Hornem.) Wall.
  • Abelmoschus vriesianus Hassk.
  • Abelmoschus warreensis Dalzell
  • Erebennus canaranus Alef.
  • Hibiscus bartlingianus Steud.
  • Hibiscus canaranus Miq. ex Mast.

and 19 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.