Species
+

Hibiscus moscheutos L.

Common Rose-mallow, Crimsoneyed Rosemallow, Mallow-rose, Sea-hollyhock

Climate known 31 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Hibiscus moscheutos, the rose mallow, swamp rose-mallow, crimsoneyed rosemallow, or eastern rosemallow, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It is a cold-hardy perennial wetland plant that can grow in large colonies. The hirsute leaves are of variable morphology, but are commonly deltoidal in shape with up to three lobes. It is found in wetlands and along the riverine systems of the eastern United States from Texas to the Atlantic states, its territory extending northward to southern Ontario. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Hibiscus moscheutos”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Hibiscus

Hibiscus is a genus of plants in the family Malvaceae native to the tropics and subtropics. The genus is quite large, comprising 319 species. Hibiscus are renowned for their large, showy flowers and those species are commonly known simply as "hibiscus", or less widely known as rose mallow. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Hibiscus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Ontario, Illinois, Kansas +33
Wild records
808 in range· 91 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1158mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 114 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to September and December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1158 mm a year, wettest July at 114 mm, driest February at 79 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -12.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Hibiscus moscheutos var. moscheutos.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to September and December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (814 mm of 1158 mm) takes 8 months, March to September and December. Mean temperature moves 23.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to March and June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1158 mm a year, wettest July at 114 mm, driest February at 79 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1158 mm a year at the habitat, 814 mm of it March to September and December. Wettest month July at 114 mm, driest February at 79 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1015 mm to 1372 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -12.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -12.4 °C, the absolute minimum -30.3 °C, about 76 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -6.2 °C to 5.8 °C), warmest day 30.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -12.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1158 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 597 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -30.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost36.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-30.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 13–40RH 56–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 597 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 0–158 / 2–1713 / 7–2019 / 13–2524 / 19–2828 / 24–3130 / 27–3329 / 26–3226 / 22–3020 / 16–2514 / 9–208 / 3–16
Night °C-1 / -6–60 / -6–74 / -1–119 / 5–1414 / 11–1919 / 16–2221 / 19–2421 / 19–2417 / 15–2111 / 9–176 / 3–121 / -3–8
Rain mm85 / 64–11679 / 59–120102 / 71–12594 / 79–115105 / 87–136106 / 94–138114 / 93–140102 / 79–13499 / 81–12791 / 76–12189 / 75–12292 / 74–128
DLI15 / 12–1820 / 18–2327 / 26–2934 / 32–3738 / 37–4040 / 39–4239 / 38–4135 / 34–3829 / 27–3223 / 20–2616 / 13–2013 / 10–17
RH %58 / 56–6257 / 55–6056 / 55–5956 / 54–5857 / 56–6159 / 57–6259 / 57–6360 / 57–6359 / 57–6158 / 56–5958 / 57–5958 / 57–61

Each figure is the median across the 597 grid cells holding the 760 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1071:1812 (36.425, -89.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -30.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -12.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 597 distinct grid cells holding the 760 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1071:1812 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.50_-89.375, lapse-corrected -14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 83 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOntario, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., West Virginia, California, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast· introduced: Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, Romania, South European Russia, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Transcaucasus, China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast, Korea, Vermont
Kew's description“perennial or helophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker38.772, -76.71 · in the densest population, 160 records (20% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 808 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 91 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 93 km away. 9 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 48 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 808 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hibiscus moscheutosHibiscus moscheutosHibiscus moscheutosHibiscus moscheutosHibiscus moscheutosHibiscus moscheutosHibiscus moscheutosHibiscus moscheutos

Photographs: Andrew Conboy, BY via GBIF · CC BY; Greg Walker, CC0 via GBIF (2); Ian McFaul, BY via GBIF · CC BY (2); chrischalfant, BY via GBIF · CC BY; Po T Ato, CC0 via GBIF (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Hibiscus moscheutos, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Evidence supporting the existence of l ‐arginine‐dependent nitric oxide synthase activity in plants
Francisco J. Corpas, José M. Palma, Luis A. del Rı́o, Juan B. Barroso (2009) · New Phytologist
DIFFERENTIAL POLLEN‐TUBE GROWTH RATES AND NONRANDOM FERTILIZATION IN HIBISCUS MOSCHEUTOS (MALVACEAE)
Allison A. Snow, Timothy P. Spira (1991) · American Journal of Botany
POLLEN‐TUBE COMPETITION AND MALE FITNESS IN HIBISCUS MOSCHEUTOS
Allison A. Snow, Timothy P. Spira (1996) · Evolution
Microgeographic genetic structure and gene flow in Hibiscus moscheutos (Malvaceae) populations
Hiroshi Kudoh, Dennis F. Whigham (1997) · American Journal of Botany
FLOWER VISITATION, POLLEN DEPOSITION, AND POLLEN‐TUBE COMPETITION IN HIBISCUS MOSCHEUTOS (MALVACEAE)
Timothy P. Spira, Allison A. Snow, Dennis F. Whigham, Jen Leak (1992) · American Journal of Botany
Encapsulation, cold storage, and growth of Hibiscus moscheutos nodal segments
Todd P. West, M. B. Ravindra, John E. Preece (2006) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
A genetic analysis of hydrologically dispersed seeds of Hibiscus moscheutos (Malvaceae)
Hiroshi Kudoh, Dennis F. Whigham (2001) · American Journal of Botany
Flowering of Herbaceous Perennials under Various Night Interruption and Cyclic Lighting Treatments
Erik S. Runkle, Royal D. Heins, Arthur C. Cameron, William H. Carlson (1998) · HortScience
INDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN THE VIGOR OF SELF POLLEN AND SELFED PROGENY IN HIBISCUS MOSCHEUTOS (MALVACEAE)
Allison A. Snow, Timothy P. Spira (1993) · American Journal of Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Hibiscus 10 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 31 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 1 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.