Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Malvales > Malvaceae > Hibiscus > Hibiscus cannabinus

Hibiscus cannabinus (brown Indianhemp)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Kenaf [etymology: Persian], Hibiscus cannabinus, is a plant in the Malvaceae family also called Deccan hemp and Java jute. Hibiscus cannabinus is in the genus Hibiscus and is probably native to southern Asia, though its exact natural origin is unknown. The name also applies to the fibre obtained from this plant. Kenaf is one of the allied fibres of jute and shows similar characteristics.
View Wikipedia Record: Hibiscus cannabinus

Infraspecies

Hibiscus cannabinus var. cannabinus
Hibiscus cannabinus var. simplex

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-Low
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Lifespan [2]  Annual/Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Insects, Lepidoptera
Structure [3]  Herb
Usage [2]  Yields a fibre from the stem; The fibre strands, which are 1.5 - 3 metres long, are used for making rope, cordage, canvas, sacking, carpet backing, nets, table cloths etc; For the best quality fibre, the stems should be harvested shortly after the flowers open; The best fibre is at the base of the stems, so hand pulling is often recommended over machine harvesting; Yields of about 1.25 tonnes of fibre per hectare are average, though 2.7 tonnes has been achieved in Cuba; The pulp from the stems has been used in making paper; The seed contains between 18 and 35% of an edible semi-drying oil; It is rather similar to groundnut oil, obtained from Arachis hypogaea; The oil is also used for burning, as a lubricant and in making soap, linoleum, paints and varnishes; The seed yield varies from 2 to 10 tonnes per acre[74] (or is it per hectare?). The stems have been used as plant supports for growing runner beans etc; The soot from the stems has been used as a black pigment in dyes; The stem has been used as a base for drilling fire;
Height [2]  5.904 feet (1.8 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Hibiscus cannabinus

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Kruger National Park II 4718115 Mpumalanga, South Africa
Mahale Mountains National Park II 398414 Tanzania

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 4HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 5Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 6Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0