Can't seem to find a source for this one. Does anyone know where I could find some seeds?
Hibiscus schizopetalus
My understanding is that H. schizopetalus doesn't set seed. (Although it can be used as a pollen donor in hybridisation: see http://www.hibiscusworld.com/BeersBook/13-OtherSpecies.htm). So if you want the species, you'll have to find a cutting; if you want seed, it will have to be a hybrid of it.
Hopefully someone local will direct you to a source.
It is available on eBay as a plant but shipping to Canada would be a problem.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Yard-Garden-Outdoor-Living-/159912/i.html?_nkw=Hibiscus+schizopetalus
DG members in the US have cuttings available but this would be a problem for any DG member in Canada. Five years ago there was a post in DG Canadian Gardening on this very subject.
Canadian Gardening: Looking for Hibiscus schizopetalus, Chinese Lantern
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/588453/
Try sending a DM to those who posted to the thread and add your query to this thread so that it will update. Someone in Canada must have a cutting they can send you.
The usual international seed exchanges don’t carry this Hibiscus as seed and the posted information about seed production is confusing.
Mike
Thanks for the advice Mike :-) I saw the one on ebay, but yes the shipping would be a problem. I'll try DMing the people in the tread, thanks for the link.
The seed production info is confusing, but its a species, how would it spread in the wild if it doesn't set seed??
Re seed production: another way of looking at the issue is to ask: who knows of anyone who has a H. schizopetalus that has produced seeds? Perhaps it's happened somewhere at some time (perhaps only in the wild) but if so it must be rare.
From http://www.internationalhibiscussociety.org/hiv1n13-2.htm:
Without doubt, H. schizopetalus provides what one may call "hot" pollen. Some 90% of all pod parent plants the author has employed using its pollen have produced seed pods and nearly half of these have resulted in viable seed. Attempts to produce seed pods on H. schizopetalus using its own pollen and other rosa-sinensis varieties (mostly tried-and-tested Philippine garden varieties and other locally-developed hybrids crossed with cultivars originating from the United States and Australia) have not produced results to date.
That's why I don't think you'll find any seed of the species; and if you find some labelled as such, it will probably be a hybrid.
Hibiscus schizopetalus is described as a hyper-pollinator for Hibiscus rosa-sinensis so it is always interesting know the Chromosome Numbers of the species which are being hybridized.
http://www.malvaceae.info/Biology/Chromosomes.php
• Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L: 36, 38, 40, 44, 46, 52, 70, 76, 84, 90, 92, 118, 132, 144
• Hibiscus schizopetalus (Dyer) Hook. f: 34, 42
Many of the reports on setting seeds are secondhand by people who have not done it. Here is one such example:
Will my Hibiscus schizopetalus produce seeds?
http://www.city-data.com/forum/garden/669014-will-my-hibiscus-schizopetalus-produce-seeds.html
Get a pair of panty hose. Cut the feet out. Use them to cover the flower AFTER it's been pollinated. Allow the seed pods to ripen. They will sort of pop when ready. The nylons will help you save them. They will probably only set seed if outdoors as it's a tropical plant. Not sure if this one can self pollinate.
If Hibiscus schizopetalus was unable to self pollinate, set seeds and be grown from seeds, or be able to propagate itself in some other way, it would never have been described as a species. I searched for the original paper which described the species. For 20th Century scientific papers Google Scholar is the search tool of choice but for 19th Century and earlier material, Google Books many times yields better results, which was the case with Hibiscus schizopetalus. The search in Google Books found this 1880 paper on Hibiscus schizopetalus which includes a lithograph of the plant, flower and mature seed pod.
Curtis's botanical magazine, Volume 106, 1880
Sir William Jackson Hooker, David Prain, Otto Stapf, Royal Horticultural Society (Great Britain), Bentham-Moxon Trust, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust
http://books.google.com/books?id=BzpNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA6524
If you go to the above link and then backup one page, you will find the lithograph of Hibiscus schizopetalus. The paper reports that the Hibiscus was grown in England from seeds collected along the East African cost line and documents the locations by name and latitude. We know where to find the wild Hibiscus schizopetalus which are most likely still setting seeds.
For the discovery of this fine plant we are indebted to our indefatigable correspondent, Dr. Kirk, H.B.M. Consul at Zanzibar, who found it first in 1874 on the coast hills at Mombasa, in lat. 4° S.; in 1877 at Kilwa, in 7° 40' S.; and, lastly, at Lindi, in 10° S. It grows both in dry rocky slopes and in damp mountain glens, in dense shade, amongst Bignonias, Balsams, and Ferns.
The specimen here figured was raised from seed sent by Dr. Kirk, which has been flowering in the Stove-house from the month of June till now, late in October.
I strongly suspect that sometime in the past 130 years, a particularly noteworthy cultivar of Hibiscus schizopetalus appeared which was self-sterile and displaced the seed producing Hibiscus schizopetalus from the hobby. From my own work with the self-sterile North American hardy cultivar Hibiscus Lord Baltimore the problem may be the length of the pollen tubes in relation the combined length of Stigma and Style. Since the domestic Hibiscus schizopetalus is described as a hyper-pollinator for Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, I suspect that the mutation was an unusually long Stigma and Style assemblage, which the hobby selected for by using cuttings. Note that there are no reports of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis pollinating Hibiscus schizopetalus which would be consistent with this theory. In the case of pollen tubes, bigger may indeed be better!
Someone needs to go to the locations is East Africa where Dr. Kirk collected seeds between 1874 and 1877 and collect new seed stocks. We should also check with the gardens at Kew to determine if they have any seed stocks. I will take it as a to-do to research the locations in East Africa using Google Earth. Now don’t all volunteer at the same time but who is going to East Africa and who is going to Kew in London?
Mike
This message was edited Oct 6, 2011 4:59 AM
Thanks for all the info. Very, very interesting. Disappointing too :-( Unfortunately, If I can't grow it from seed, chances are, I won't find it. Canada is not the best place to find tropical plants. lol.
Don’t give up hope quite yet. The first and third locations in the 1880 report correlate perfectly with real metropolitan locations in East Africa and I now have the GPS waypoints for both. The problem with the second location is that there are several rural locations with the same name, none of which agree with the published latitude. From the description it sounds like Dr. Kirk was stationed in Mombasa and in 1877 made a trip (by sea?) to Lindi, stopping at a location identified as Kilwa on the way. The name could be wrong or the latitude could be wrong or both. As the latitude could be calculated with great accuracy in 1877 I would have a higher confidence in that value, unless there as a transcription error. Mombasa and Lindi were established sea ports and their coordinates were well known in 1877. The good news is that we have two solid waypoints were seeds were found in the 1870’s; or to be more precise, the Hibiscus would be inland to the west of the two waypoints. You have to love Google Earth!
We should also take a look at Hibiscus liliiflorus which is referenced in the report.
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&q=Hibiscus+liliiflorus&btnG=Search+Images
Mike
Interesting stuff. So, it's a trip to either Kew or Africa? It would be cheaper to pay for a plant go thru quarantine procedures LOL
Perhaps there's a relevant gardening society----of hibiscus or tropical plants--in Canada that could help? Or one of your botanical gardens with a conservatory of tropical plant? You never know; you could get lucky one day!
I got mine from Exotic Hibiscus years ago. It's called Chinese Lantern on their website.
http://www.exotichibiscus.com/index.htm
I've bought several of my hibiscus from them and love doing business with them.
Barb