Hibiscus storkii - A Pleasant Surprise

[Charlie]

Hibiscus storkii is an extremely rare species of hibiscus, discovered by a scientific expedition to Fiji in 1860 and named after Jacob Storkii, one of the team members. Wood from the plant was sent back to Kew Gardens in England where it has survived ever since. The original plant disappeared after this expedition and has never been located again despite several attempts to do so. Last year I acquired some seeds that originated at Kew Gardens and today one of the plants bloomed!

This species is considered by some to be the same as Hibiscus denisonii, which itself may be the origin of many of the unusual colors that hibiscus now display. This is controversial, but having a chance to acquire H. storkii was something I could not pass up.

Seeing the first flower was a pleasant surprise but I did not have my camera today so picked the bloom and brought it home. The leaves it is sitting on are not the leaves of H storkii. As soon as possible I will take photos of the flower blooming on the actual bush. So neat - Hibiscus storkii here, alive and well!

Charlie
 

[stplong]

Great photo Charlie, there's someone else that lives in California that colects the older varieties, just incase your interested I have included a link to their blog below.

Patrick

http://hibiscus-malvaceae.blogspot.com/

[Charlie]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for the link. I met this guy once but have not seen his site lately which is looking very nice now. He came over and we ended up trading a H. liliflorus I had for an H. fragilis that he had. H. fragilis is on the "critically engangered" species list and I had not been able to get it before. The plant of it he gave me was a tiny seedling but is now a single stem about 6 feet tall. No flowers yet, but surely it will bloom before the summer is out! I plan to take cuttings after I see and photograph the flower.

I only collect the species of hibiscus that are cross-compatible with each other and which are the ancestors of modern hibiscus hybrids like the ones we offer on the HVH site. This guy, sorry, can't recall his name at the moment, is interested in collecting all of the many hundreds of hibiscus species and already has an outstanding collection of them.

Charlie

[Nievesgirl]

That is an awesome story about storkii , will you be propagating this species for sale ? Pleas say yes ! I was looking for the species but I was not successful of finding it. There is another fiji species I want ( need to find name forgot what it is) but I can not find someone to ship me this other plant.

[Charlie]

Almost all these ancestral species of hibiscus that created the gene pool for the ones we grow today are rare or endangered. A big reason that I've tried to find and collect them is so that they could be propagated and spread to people who could help keep them from going extinct. It's also fun and interesting to see the qualities that they had back then and sometimes match those qualities to modern hybrids.

So yes, we will be adding both H storkii and H fragilis to the store as soon as we have enough of them successfully propagated. If they are like H rosa-sinensis, H lilliflorus, and H schizopetalus they will root readily and can be increased relatively quickly. If they are like H arnottianus it could be more difficult and take longer.

Charlie

[Nievesgirl]

Almost all these ancestral species of hibiscus that created the gene pool for the ones we grow today are rare or endangered. A big reason that I've tried to find and collect them is so that they could be propagated and spread to people who could help keep them from going extinct. It's also fun and interesting to see the qualities that they had back then and sometimes match those qualities to modern hybrids.

So yes, we will be adding both H storkii and H fragilis to the store as soon as we have enough of them successfully propagated. If they are like H rosa-sinensis, H lilliflorus, and H schizopetalus they will root readily and can be increased relatively quickly. If they are like H arnottianus it could be more difficult and take longer.

Charlie

Hopefully they root so it will speed up production. Another species or early cv I wanted was Fiji Island I found it but the nursery will not ship

[helixturnhelix]

Wow Charlie what a find.  Very lucky to have found that species!  I can't wait to see how it does for you

[Charlie]

One of the great things about having a forum where the posts stay visible and are searchable is that people find you that you are glad to hear from. Recently I heard from the "guy" I mentioned earlier in this topic who is collecting all types of hibiscus species here in southern California. His name is Gil, and he has a web site with many photos of hibiscus species that you can see at http://hibiscus-malvaceae.blogspot.com/
We exchanged info about the elusive Hibiscus storkii and other species.

Anyway, I promised a bush photo of H storkii earlier, so here it is. This is a bush grown from seed and is about 8 months old. It has bloomed a couple of times but has not really matured into full performance yet. In fact many hibiscus that are grown from seed show immature leaf structure and odd leaf colors until they mature, at which time the leaf form usually (but not always) reverts to one of the standard leaf forms that we are familiar with.

Charlie

[Nievesgirl]

Awesome i just can't wait to get one once production starts.