Hibiscus syriacusL.

common hibiscus

WFO wfo-0000723127 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Hibiscus syriacus, photographed by Federico Muñoz
fig. a Federico Muñoz, CC0 1.0 / 2021-12-24 / obs. 173520737
Hibiscus syriacus, photographed by Rejoice Gassah
fig. b Rejoice Gassah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175577545
Hibiscus syriacus, photographed by Rejoice Gassah
fig. c Rejoice Gassah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169967609
Hibiscus syriacus, photographed by Steven Bodzin
fig. d Steven Bodzin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157041439
Hibiscus syriacus, photographed by Yann Kemper
fig. e Yann Kemper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 155405570
Hibiscus syriacus, photographed by Cecil Smith
fig. f Cecil Smith, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175191320
Hibiscus syriacus, photographed by Thor-Rune Hansen
fig. g Thor-Rune Hansen, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 155913386
Hibiscus syriacus, photographed by Quinn Shemet
fig. h Quinn Shemet, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162358840

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.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 4,191 observations

Peak flowering in Aug, from 4,191 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 28 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.

  • Althaea frutex hort. ex Mill.
  • Hibiscus acerifolius Salisb.
  • Hibiscus arborescens Gaterau
  • Hibiscus chinensis DC.
  • Hibiscus floridus Salisb.
  • Hibiscus rhombifolius Cav.
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. alboplenus Sweet
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. albus Sweet
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. amplissimus L.F.Gagnep.
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. brevibracteatus S.Y.Hu
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. chinensis Lindl.
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. elegantissimus L.F.Gagnep.
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. grandiflorus Rehder
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. longibracteatus S.Y.Hu
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. marginatus Sweet
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. micranthus Y.N.Lee & K.B.Yim
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. paeoniiflorus L.F.Gagnep.
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. purpureoplenus Sweet
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. purpureus Sweet
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. ruber Sweet
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. sinensis Lem.
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. syriacus
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. totoalbus T.Moore
  • Hibiscus syriacus var. variegatus Sweet

and 4 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.

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