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Hibiscus fragilis
Hibiscus fragilis, the mandrinette, is an extremely rare evergreen shrub from steep slopes on Mauritius and Rodrigues, with large bright pink to carmine flowers. Only a handful of wild plants remain, so it is grown mainly in nurseries and collections.
Hibiscus fragilis, the mandrinette, is an extremely rare shrub that is endemic to steep slopes of the mountains Corps de Garde and Le Morne Brabant on Mauritius and from two further plants on Rodrigues. The mandrinette is an evergreen plant with flowers 7–10 cm diameter with five bright pink to carmine red petals.
The mandrinette looks rather similar to the Chinese hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) and the introduction of that to Mauritius as a garden plant is one of the main reasons for the dramatic decline of the mandrinette. Only 46 mature individuals exist in the wild but they are not able to reproduce due to competition from and hybridisation with this invasive Hibiscus species.
Alyogyne hakeifolia · Alyogyne huegelii · Hibiscus acapulcensis · African rosemallow · Comfortroot · Cape Hibiscus · Hibiscus aponeurus · Hibiscus ×archeri · White rosemallow · Fork-bracted rosemallow · Foulsapate Marron · Brackenridge's rosemallow
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hibiscus fragilis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
