FoI
Wild Hibiscus
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Wild Hibiscus
ative Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Wild Hibiscus, Hill Hemp Bendy • Gujarati: મજનૂ ફલ majnu-phal • Hindi: वन गुढ़ल van gurhal • Kannada: Betta bende • Konkani: व्हडलो रानभेंडो vhadlo ranbhendo • Malayalam: ഞാറന്‍പുളി njaaranpuli • Marathi: काटेरी भेंडी kateri bhendi • Sanskrit: शठम्बष्ठी sathambasthi • Tamil: மலைப்புளிச்சை malai-p-puliccai • Telugu: అడవిగోగు adavigogu, కొండగోగు kondagogu
Botanical name: Hibiscus hispidissimus    Family: Malvaceae (Mallow family)
Wild Hibiscus is a large climber, with sometimes reddish stems covered with hooked prickles. Alternately arranged leaves, 6-8 cm, are palmately 3-5-lobed, hairy, heart-shaped at base, prickly on the nerves. Leaf margins are toothed, lobes long-pointed, and the leaf-stalks are 5-10 cm long, prickly. Stipules are lanceshaped. Yellow flowers arise singly in leaf axils, carried on 3-5 cm long prickly stalks. Bracts below the flowers are 8-12, with leafy appendages. Sepals are hairy. Seed capsules are 1 cm long, ovoid, pointed, enclosed in enlarged sepal cup. Wild Hibiscus is commonly found in the evergreen forests of Western Ghats. Flowering: November-January.
Identification credit: Dinesh Valke
Photographed at Yeoor Hills, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Maharashtra.
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