Hibiscus

Hibiscus is a large genus of the mallow family, Malvaceae, at home in the tropics and subtropics and in warm temperate lands from East Africa to China and Hawaii. Its members run from annual and perennial herbs to shrubs and small trees, between ten centimetres and four metres tall, and are grown for big, trumpet-shaped flowers of five or more petals in white, pink, red, orange or blue. The name comes from the Greek hibiskos, which Dioscorides gave to the marsh mallow. The rose of Sharon and the Chinese hibiscus, the species Kynes describes, are widely planted. In Hawaii the blossoms are strung into leis as a sign of welcome, and South Pacific lore read a red flower worn behind a woman's left ear as a search for a lover and behind the right as a sign she already had one. In India the red flowers of the China rose were religious offerings; the red hibiscus is the flower of the goddess Kali and is offered to her and to Ganesha. Because the bruised petals turn black, they were also thought to serve witches in spells, and hibiscus found growing at a crossroads was said to let evil spirits take hold of whoever touched it. Cunningham records a strong red tea of the flowers drunk to stir lust, and for that reason forbidden to women in Egypt, the blossoms in love incenses, sachets and tropical wedding wreaths, and a Dobu divination over a bowl of water strewn with the flowers.