Hibiscus tridactylitesLindl.

WFO wfo-0000723159 Accepted WFO 2026-06 6 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–f · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 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.

Hibiscus tridactylites, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. a Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-03-19 / obs. 184007408

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 40 botanical countries

Regions where Hibiscus tridactylites is native: Angola, Botswana, Burkina, Cape Provinces, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Northern Provinces, Senegal, Somalia, St.Helena, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Yemen, Assam, India, West Himalaya, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria AngolaBotswanaBurkinaCape ProvincesChadDjiboutiEgyptEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNorthern ProvincesSenegalSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweOmanSaudi ArabiaSinaiYemenAssamIndiaWest HimalayaNew South WalesNorthern TerritoryQueenslandSouth AustraliaVictoria St.Helena
Native distribution of Hibiscus tridactylites, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Cape Provinces CPP
Chad CHA
Djibouti DJI
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Northern Provinces TVL
Senegal SEN
Somalia SOM
St.Helena STH
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
Northern Territory NTA
Queensland QLD
South Australia SOA
Victoria VIC
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Yemen YEM
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
India IND
West Himalaya WHM

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 110 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 3.2 °C 6.5 °C 10.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.5 °C 28.9 °C 31.7 °C
Annual rainfall 449 mm 751 mm 1,159 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 38 mm 101 mm 152 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 110 research-grade observations of Hibiscus tridactylites 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.

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.