A large shrub-like perennial, generally grown as the cultivar L. olbia "Rosea'.
W Mediterranean
Several plants are grown as perennials and their identification may be difficult especially as hybridisation may have occurred:
L. cachemiriana Cambess. from Kashmir may be grown as an annual to 2 m or so tall with deeply cleft petals to 4 cm long;
L. thuringiaca L. from Europe, which grows to about 1.5 m tall, is grey-hairy with purplish pink petals and may be supplied as cultivars of varying habit and flower tonings.
Source: (1997). Hibiscus. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Flowers solitary or in pairs, large, prolific on stalks generally more than 1 cm long. Petals more than 4 cm long.
Possibly of pre-1920s hybrid origin in the UK (L cachemiriana × L. thuringiaca).
