Aibika is a relative of okra from warm parts of Asia, New Guinea, and Queensland, Australia, and isn't native to the US. It's grown mainly for its leaves and is Papua New Guinea's most popular native leafy green, while in Japan and Korea the slimy sap from its roots is a traditional ingredient in handmade paper. Its big pale-yellow flowers with a dark purple center give it the names sunset hibiscus and sunset muskmallow.
Appearance
- Growth form
- In good tropical conditions it becomes a shrubby plant over 10 ft (3 m) tall.
- Leaves
- Deeply hand-shaped () leaves with narrow lobes. They are rich in vitamins A and C and iron, with about 12% protein by dry weight.
- Flowers
- Pale yellow flowers about 4 in (10 cm) across with a dark purple center. Each flower opens in the morning and closes by evening.
Look-alikes
Aibika's flowers, about 4 in (10 cm) across, are bigger than okra's 1.5–3 in (4–8 cm). Okra forms long, five-sided pods (up to 7 in, or 18 cm) picked young as a vegetable; aibika's pods are oblong and bristly and aren't eaten.
Why they get mixed upThey're in the same genus and have almost identical yellow flowers with dark centers.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Gardens
- Farm plots
- Range
- Native to the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, central and southern China, Malesia, New Guinea, and Queensland, Australia. It is not native to the US, where it turns up only as a cultivated plant, for example in Hawaii.
Growing it
- Propagation
- Grows easily from cuttings and resists disease well.
Name and classification
- About the name
- First named Hibiscus manihot by Linnaeus in 1753, it was moved to Abelmoschus in 1787.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- DDData DeficientNot enough data yet to assess
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- In the Philippines (lagikway) the leaves go into soups like tinola and sinigang, and in Indonesia (daun gedi) into the rice porridge bubur Manado.
More species to explore
Record what you meet and build your own collection
Your photos are kept with their date and place, and you can fill regional albums one species at a time.