Kenaf

Hibiscus cannabinus is cultivated as a fiber crop ("kenaf "). The seed oil is considered inedible but is used industrially and in oil-lamps.

Herbs annual or perennial, erect, robust, to 3 m tall, glabrous, sparsely sharply spiny. Stipules silklike, 6-8 mm; petiole 6-20 cm, sparsely spiny; leaf blade dimorphic; blades on proximal part of stem cordate, those on distal part of stem palmately 3-7-lobed, lobes lanceolate, 2-12 × 0.6-2 cm, base cordate or nearly rounded, margin serrate, glabrous on both surfaces, apex acuminate; basal veins 5-7, glandular near base of midrib. Flowers solitary, axillary, nearly sessile. Epicalyx lobes 7-10, not red, filiform, free, 6-8 mm, sparsely spiny. Calyx nearly campanulate, connate for ca. 1/2 length, ca. 3 cm, spiny and white tomentose, lobes 5, lanceolate, 1-2 cm, long caudate. Corolla yellow with red center; petals oblong-obovate, ca. 6 cm. Staminal column 1.5-2 cm, glabrous. Styles 5, glabrous. Capsule globose, ca. 1.5 cm in diam., densely spiny, apex shortly beaked. Seeds reniform, subglabrous. Fl. autumn.

Of ?African origin. Cultivated in most tropical countries.

200 m

Cultivated. Guangdong, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Yunnan, Zhejiang [native to Africa and India].

Abelmoschus verrucosus (Guillemin & Perrottet) Walpers; Furcaria cavanillesii Kosteletzky; Hibiscus unidens Lindley; H. verrucosus Guillemin & Perrottet; Ketmia glandulosa Moench.