Sunday, April 8, 2018

H for Hibiscus

For the botany class on the parts of a flower , the usual subject of choice is the hibiscus or the shoeflower. Our biology teacher made such great efforts to drill it into our heads that I can imagine an eighty year old me forgetting my own name but clearly remembering it's scientific one - Hibiscus rosasinensis. The structure if the flower makes it very easy to dissect and explain the petal, sepal, calyx , corolla etc.

During my childhood we used to have a hibiscus plant at home , the red layered variety. Hibiscus leaves soaked in water makes a great conditioner for hair. Squeeze and crush them with hands and apply to dry hair before shampoo ing and hair gets really silky soft. Am I sounding like a salon ad ? But honestly from experience it does have a nice effect and cools down your body too.

Hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia . During our 2 year stay in Kuala Lumpur , main roads decked up with light decorations resembling this humble flower was a common sight.

This is one flower that comes in so many colours and they bloom in abundance on each plant . Hence having a couple of them in your garden can add a lot of colour and vibrance. Orange, red , pink , cream , yellow and sometimes double coloured .

But I think it's predominantly an Asian flower. Not sure if it grows in other parts of the world.

Image source : wikipedia 

4 comments:

  1. People in many countries drink tea made from Hibiscus flowers. Supposed to have lot of Vitamin C.

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  2. They are such a radiant beauty. Didnt know about their health benefits.
    Happy A to Zing!
    https://moondustwriter.com/2018/04/08/hello-children-atozchallenge/

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  3. Your post took my memories back to my biology class in school. I too remember Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. Also, someone told me it's called shoeflower since it was once used to polish shoes! Not sure if that is true.
    (My latest blog post: http://bit.ly/TT_Husbandry)

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  4. Ah! Hibiscus rosasinensis... I am remembering it's diagram and the scrap book in which I had pasted it for a project.
    I have tried its paste once to treat dry hair. The red and pink variety was pretty abundant in our colony years ago.

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