Abelmoschus sagittifolius

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Abelmoschus sagittifolius, photographed by Francis Pérez — fig. b Francis Pérez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170479910

Abelmoschus sagittifolius, photographed by coenobita — fig. c coenobita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 14521780

Abelmoschus sagittifolius, photographed by Shami Narayanan — fig. d Shami Narayanan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 91401211

Abelmoschus sagittifolius, photographed by dhfischer — fig. e dhfischer, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 91185643

Abelmoschus sagittifolius, photographed by Emily Abrego — fig. f Emily Abrego, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170661357

Abelmoschus sagittifolius, photographed by Richard Fuller — fig. g Richard Fuller, CC0 1.0 / obs. 112016741

Abelmoschus sagittifolius, photographed by garywwilson — fig. h garywwilson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112223091

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 15 botanical countries

Native distribution of Abelmoschus sagittifolius, 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.

Region	TDWG code	Continent
Bangladesh	BAN	ASIA-TROPICAL
Cambodia	CBD
India	IND
Jawa	JAW
Laos	LAO
Malaya	MLY
Myanmar	MYA
New Guinea	NWG
Philippines	PHI
Thailand	THA
Vietnam	VIE
China South-Central	CHC	ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast	CHS
Hainan	CHH
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.

Flowering 47 in flower of 47 examined

100%

Proportion of examined Abelmoschus sagittifolius in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	11	11	100%	74% to 100%
Feb	15	15	100%	80% to 100%
Mar	3	3	too few examined
Apr	7	7	100%	65% to 100%
May	2	2	too few examined
Jun	0	0	too few examined
Jul	0	0	too few examined
Aug	0	0	too few examined
Sep	1	1	too few examined
Oct	1	1	too few examined
Nov	1	1	too few examined
Dec	6	6	100%	61% to 100%

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Abelmoschus sagittifolius observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 47 of 47 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 33 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 brevicapsulatus Hochr.
Abelmoschus coccineus S.Y.Hu
Abelmoschus coccineus var. acerifolius S.Y.Hu
Abelmoschus esquirolii (H.Lév.) S.Y.Hu
Abelmoschus moschatus subsp. quinquelobus (Gagnep.) Bân & Xuyen
Abelmoschus moschatus subsp. tuberosus Borss.Waalk.
Abelmoschus moschatus var. rugosus (Wight & Arn.) Hochr.
Abelmoschus rhodopetalus F.Muell.
Abelmoschus rugosus Wight & Arn.
Abelmoschus sagittifolius var. septentrionalis (Gagnep.) Merr.
Abelmoschus sharpei Copel. ex Merr.
Abelmoschus todayensis Elmer
Abelmoschus vanoverberghii Merr.
Hibiscus abelmoschus var. rugosus (Wall. ex Wight & Arn.) Hochr.
Hibiscus bellicorus H.Lév.
Hibiscus bellicosus H.Lév.
Hibiscus bodinieri var. brevicalyculata H.Lév.
Hibiscus brevicapsulatus Hochr.
Hibiscus esquirolii H.Lév.
Hibiscus hirtus Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.
Hibiscus longifolius var. tuberosus Span.
Hibiscus rhodopetalus (F.Muell.) F.Muell. ex Benth.
Hibiscus rhodopetalus f. angustisectus Domin
Hibiscus rhodopetalus f. typica Domin

and 9 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
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.