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purpleinopp

Wiki article on H. mutabilis, confederate rose

The Wiki article for H. mutabilis contains the following sentence: "Flowers are white in the morning, turning pink during noon and red in the evening of the same day."

The sentence is quoted from a scholarly article about the antioxidant properties of H. mutabilis at various altitudes in Malaysia. Trying to read this article to understand if these are the same H. mutabilis that are ubiquitous in the southern US is more boring than I can take.

So hopefully this is a good place to ask. Are they considering "red" to be the color of the shriveled old blooms? I wouldn't call them flowers red at all until they do that, then "red" would be a stretch to describe the pink-turning-brown color. Are the the southern US H. mutabilis simply different plants, or am I just picking gnat poop out of pepper by questioning the word red? If they are different, how would one refer to them to make that distinction? Are the ones all over the southern US some long-ago created cultivar?

And I've seen plenty of white flowers late in the evening...

Bottom line, should this Wiki article be edited? If so, how does one go about that without a source to cite? I doubt just saying "they don't do that here" will suffice on there.

Comments (7)

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Accidentally clicked submit before proofing...
    ...them the flowers...

    Oops!

  • RetiredFlorida
    11 years ago

    Purpleinopp,

    I am no way an authority on hibiscus but I do have one of these and it isn't white and it isn't red, it is light pink all day from what I've seen. They had a double pink that looked like the exact same plant that I bought a the USF Plant sale. It is getting ready to bloom again and I will have to keep an eye on it, it has only bloomed two or three times since I've had it.

    Hibiscus do some really weird things so I take all minor differences with a grain of salt. I read that article some time ago and said "Hmmm, changes throughout the day, nice". Of course there are so many hybrids out there.........

    As far as wiki, you don't have to site a source and I think everyone can edit it, if I'm not mistaken. I think of wiki as a good starting point for a lot of research but not the final authority for most stuff.

    Darren

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks, Darren.

    So you have one that doesn't even start out white? Interesting.

    No doubt there are probably tons of newfangled cultivars of H. mutabilis. It seems that the plain ol' species has some variation but I'm just a dabbler in the subject also... I have made minor edits on Wiki before, but nothing more serious than spelling or grammar errors.

    Curious to hear what else there might be to say...

  • RetiredFlorida
    11 years ago

    Purple, nope, checked it this morning, it was light pink and this afternoon the same. Little bit of white in the center. When I bought this plant, there were 3 of them at the plant sale. There was only one blooming and it was a pink double. It was gorgeous and when I asked, I was told it would be just like the one that was just sold. A week later I find out it is not a pink double but single. Still a beauty but learned a lesson about plant sales. If it is not blooming or the nursery has a good rep, not buying it!

    I'm loving this new hobby but I can't think of anything more frustrating than trying to understand the names, variations, hybrids and the profuse use of butterfly in the naming of plants!!

    Darren

  • wally_1936
    11 years ago

    I have never seen that any of mine ever were white but they are a very light pink and get darker by the next day. I have the double blooms. I end up with enough seeds that I never have any use for but I still save them. When they stop blooming they start putting on seeds. They do not seem to germinate as well but if the seeds are planted heavily they do sprout, I did have one volunteer sprout and it is about 6' tall now. I planted one cutting under a pecan tree and it is growing well. It did put on a few blooms, but not like those in full sun, but still a very healthy plant. I still have enough seeds left over for a couple people who would like to try them for a SASE.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I made a point to check while I was driving yesterday, from 11 AM to noon, I saw tons of flowers of all stages from white to pink, same from 3 PM to 4 PM, I saw a lot of white flowers still, flowers of all shades of progression of white to pink. Never once looked at one of these and thought "red."

    It may be a bit late in the year to be studying this, if being in the northern edge of this plants' hardiness has something to do with the pace of the color change. If so, that would be good to add to the Wiki article. Maybe that's what's going on...?

  • RetiredFlorida
    11 years ago

    I can not say I've seen a red one either. I was in the yard today and caught on of the family members returning from an outing and thought it made for a good pic. The pink is my CF on the left, on the right is a bougavilla. The gopher lives in my backyard and was coming home.

    Darren

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