Hibiscus micranthus
Malvaceae FAMILY

Hibiscus micranthus

Hibiscus micranthus

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitShrub
Growth—

Often found as a weed of cultivated crops within its native range, it has the potential to spread as a weed in other, suitable areas[1]. The flowers only open when the plant is growing in direct sunlight[2].

Propagation

Seed - sow in situ or in containers. Germination is usually fairly rapid and no special pretreatment is needed, although germination will be faster if the seed is abraded or soaked prior to sowing[3]. Prick out container-grown seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and plant them out into their permanent positions when they are 10cm or more tall. Cuttings of half-ripe wood in a frame. They generally strike readily, particularly if cuttings are taken on an angle through a node and rooting hormone is applied to their ends[3]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Hibiscus+micranthus>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]Invasive Species Compendium — http://www.cabi.org ↩︎An immense resource - in depth information on over 900 species of invasive plants (it also has information on animals, fungi etc).
  2. [2]Flowers of India — http://www.flowersofindia.net/ ↩︎A wed site of native Indian plants, plus cultivated and naturalized species. It has good quality photos and terse details on more than 3,000 species and cultivars.
  3. [3]Australian Native Plants Society — http://anpsa.org.au/index.html ↩︎A series of fact sheets on Australian plants. Good photographs, brief description and information on uses, habitat, range, cultivation etc.
  4. [4]The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. — Burkil. H. M. · Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. · 1985 - 2004 ↩︎Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
  5. [5]Edible Wild Plants of Tanzania — Ruffo, C.K.: Birnie, A. & Tengnas, B. · Regional Land Management Unit; Nairobi. · 2002 · ISBN 9966-896-60-0 ↩︎A very well presented, simple guide to growing and utilizing wild food plants in Tanzania, with line drawings of each plant, a description, habitat and range, non-food as well as food uses, plus basic information on growing the plants.
  6. [6]Flora of Somalia — Thulin M. (Editor) · Kew Publishing, London. · 1993 ↩︎Detailed information on the plants of the region, often adding notes on the plants uses.
  7. [7]Antimicrobial Activity of Tanzanian Chewing Sticks Against Oral Pathogenic Microbes — Maryam N. Khan, Olipa Ngassapa & Mecky I.N. Matee · 2000 · https://doi.org/10.1076/1388-0209(200007)3831-SFT235 ↩︎
  8. [8]Flora Zambesiaca — http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html ↩︎An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.