Hibiscus "Giant Yellow" Identification (circa 1900)

Begin Update 2012-02-20
This plant has been identified as Hibiscus calyphyllus. Additional information has been posted on DG and Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus_calyphyllus
End Update 2012-02-20

In my research into the history of hardy Hibiscus, I have found multiple references to yellow Hibiscus. Most reports are obviously of tropical Hibiscus. A few reports reference wild yellow Hibiscus moscheutos in New Jersey and other states, which were the focus of my research. Finally there are reliable reports of a Hibiscus “Giant Yellow” with possibly some degree of cold tolerance.

At the beginning of the Twentieth Century there was a Hibiscus known as Hibiscus "Giant Yellow" which was being sold in 1903 as seeds by Peter Henderson & Co. a New York City plant and seed seller.

Wholesale catalogue for market growers and florists - Peter Henderson & Co – 1903, Page 18
http://books.google.com/books?id=aDLnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA18&dq=Hibiscus+Giant+Yellow

HIBISCUS africanus, cream, purple eye, annual...
HIBISCUS Rose pink with white base
HIBISCUS Crimson Eye, white, crimson eye, hardy
HIBISCUS Japanese "Manihot" cream, garnet eye
HIBISCUS Giant Yellow, yellow, garnet throat, immense.
HIBISCUS cocclneus, scarlet, perennial

The Japanese "Manihot" is most likely Abelmoschus manihot which was formally known as Hibiscus manihot. I mention this to note that some of Henderson’s Hibiscus seed offerings are no longer considered Hibiscus.

Barbara Perry Lawton in her book “Hibiscus” references Hibiscus "Giant Yellow" in the section of the book on hardy North American hardy Hibiscus, sighting the Peter Henderson 1902 seed catalog as the source. I highly recommend this book to all DG members.
http://davesgarden.com/products/gbw/c/1809/

Barbara Lawton described Hibiscus “Giant Yellow” on pages 58 and 136 of her book as:

Page 58
Among the cultivars for sale were ‘Giant Yellow’, with garnet-eyed, canary-yellow flowers often 9 inches (22.5 cm) across;

Page 136
Hibiscus “Giant Yellow”. An early variety listed in a 1902 catalog, Noted for its 9-inch (22.5 cm) canary-yellow flowers with a garnet eye.

I found two gardening books which reference Hibiscus “Giant Yellow”.

The Flower Garden; a handbook of practical garden lore By Ida Dandridge Bennett, 1903, page 108
http://books.google.com/books?id=5WRDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA108&dq=Hibiscus+Giant+Yellow

Giant Yellow is a beautiful canary yellow with crimson throat, hardy as far north as St. Louis, but safer in the cellar above that latitude, and Coccinea, a tender perennial of a brilliant crimson. If started early all will give flowers the first season from seed, which may be sown in hotbeds or flats in February or March in drills one-fourth inch deep. They germinate in from five to seven days. Plant out in good garden soil at corn-planting time, setting the hardy varieties where they are to remain, as they do not bear transplanting well when they have attained any considerable size. Cultivate during the hot weather or mulch. A two-quart tin can, with holes on one side near the bottom, may be sunk in the ground and filled with water. This with the mulch will keep the earth cool and moist during the hottest weather. The plant is an herbaceous perennial, dying down to the ground in winter and coming up from the roots the following spring—rather late in May.

St. Louis, Missouri is in USDA Zone 6a (http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hzm-ne1.html) so we know that Hibiscus “Giant Yellow” was not a tropical. On the other hand it appears to have a cold tolerance similar to the North American native Texas Red Start Hibiscus coccineus.

Success with flowers, a floral magazine, Volumes 11-12, 1900, Page 271
http://books.google.com/books?id=sVBEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA271&dq=Hibiscus+’giant+yellow’

Another variety of this class of Hibiscus comes under various names, as Chrysantha, Primrose, or Giant Yellow. Its cups are yellow, with a centre either black or maroon. It is even handsomer than Crimson Eye. For a pink in this class I found the Wild Marshmallow very beautiful. Under garden cultivation the cups grew larger than in the wild state. The color was the loveliest seashell pink.

The word Chrysantha is of Greek origin and means "golden flower". Hence the name Hibiscus “Giant Yellow” or Hibiscus “Golden Flower” convey the same information except for size.

A search for Hibiscus chrysantha yields a picture which matches the description of Hibiscus “Giant Yellow”, which was published in 1891 as a chromolithograph in The Mayflower Magazine. A low resolution picture is attached to this post and a high quality reprint is available at: http://www.oldimprints.com/OldImprints/search.cfm?UR=32365&search_stage=details&records_to_display=50&this_book_number=4&gallery=print_gallery

In 1900 the New York Botanical Garden references the species.

Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden, Volume 1, 1900, Page 148
http://books.google.com/books?id=0isWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA148&dq=Hibiscus+chrysantha

With the exception of the New York Botanical Garden reference, the species Hibiscus chrysantha is not found in any scientific literature, currently available online. The scientific name Hibiscus chrysantha is only referenced in the Mayflower Magazine of 1891 and reprint sellers.

I did find one more clue in American Gardening: Volume 17, 1896, Page 741, for which only a Google Books Snippet view is available.

Hibiscus, Giant Yellow, or Sunset makes an interesting pot plant, and will flower for a while yet. It is easily raised from seed sown in spring, and properly belongs in the perennial border, but it is not hardy here in Chicago.

The Sunset Hibiscus is another name for Hibiscus manihot which is now know as Abelmoschus manihot. If you do a Google Image search on Abelmoschus manihot you find a large variation in leaf conformation, which is characteristic of the species:
http://www.google.com/images?q='abelmoschus+manihot'

No DG member is reporting that Abelmoschus manihot is surviving in USDA Zones colder than 8a. The Henderson 1903 catalog did describe Hibiscus manihot accurately and there appeared to be significant differences between Hibiscus manihot and Hibiscus “Giant Yellow”.

Here is what may be known about Hibiscus “Giant Yellow”:

• The plant had the appearance of a Hibiscus.
• The flowers were a bright canary-yellow and were large.
• The plant could survive to Zone 6a.
• The plant may also have been known as H. chrysantha or Sunset Hibiscus.
• The plants description is different from Abelmoschus manihot.
• The plant could be in the Hibiscus or Abelmoschus genus.
• It is uncertain if the picture of Hibiscus chrysantha is Hibiscus “Giant Yellow”.
• Hibiscus chrysantha is not a scientifically recognized species.
• The picture of Hibiscus chrysantha doesn’t resemble A. manihot.
• It is unlikely that the plant is the North American native Hibiscus aculeatus.

As pure speculation on my part, could there be cultivar or subspecies of Abelmoschus manihot which has greater cold tolerance, with larger and yellower flowers. In the Google Image search for Abelmoschus manihot several of the plants have leaves which resemble those in the 1891 photograph from the Mayflower Magazine.

If the Hibiscus “Giant Yellow” exists, it is most likely from Northern Asia. Can any DG member identify Hibiscus “Giant Yellow” and solve a 110 year old mystery?

Mike


This message was edited Feb 22, 2012 9:30 AM

In the previous post in this thread, I commented a large yellow Hibiscus of uncertain origins and cold tolerance, which was offered for sale in the early 1900’s as seeds. My ultimate objective has been to locate a yellow hardy Hibiscus native to North America.

In the scientific and trade botanical literature of one hundred or more years ago, I continue to run across reference to a native yellow Hibiscus which was identified as Hibiscus incanus but which would most likely be identified as Hibiscus moscheutos var. incanus today. Hibiscus incanus was described as having sulphur colored or straw-yellow petals with a range from Maryland to Florida. Hibiscus incanus was first described by Dr. Alvan Chapman of Apalachicola, FL in 1860. In 1888 Dr. Asa Gray of Harvard, reaffirmed the identification of Hibiscus incanus based of specimens collected by Mr. F. J. Muller in the area about the Town of Warrior, Jefferson County, Alabama. The location where Dr. Alvan Chapman collected his specimens of Hibiscus incanus is unknown as this time.

In addition to Hibiscus incanus, yellow Hibiscus have appears in domesticated Hibiscus stock in the New Jersey and New York areas but as these Hibiscus had been under domestication for a number years, such sighting are not evidence for the existence of a yellow Hibiscus species.

In the attached references, I lay out the case for the existence of a wild yellow Hibiscus moscheutos var. incanus between Maryland and Florida, with a high probability that specimens may still exist about the Town of Warrior, Alabama.

If any DG members have access to the areas about Warrior, Alabama or Apalachicola, Florida or any other location and have knowledge of a wild yellow Hibiscus, I would be very interested in hearing from you.

Michael Ronayne

The Evidence for the Existence of a Yellow Hibiscus moscheutos var. incanus

New or Rare Plants
Author(s): Asa Gray
Source: Botanical Gazette, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Apr., 1888), p. 73
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2993990

Hibiscus incanus, Wendl. Doubting the sulphur colored or straw-yellow petals, I referred this species to H. lasiocarpos Cav. in Proc. Am. Acad. xxii, 302. But I find that Dr. Chapman well knows the yellow-flowered plant, and I have now received it from Alabama, from F. J. Muller through Prof. Meehan. Chapman's character is a good one, but I have passed some dried specimens for a form of H. Moscheutos, which it much resembles. I have confirmed H. lasiocarpos Cav. for the hairy-fruited species, by referring to the original in herb. Jussieu at Paris. I here record the rehabilitation of H. incanus, because in these days catalogues are so numerously and promptly published.

With a small degree of uncertainty as to the identity of F. J. Muller, all the people reference in the above report have been identified and their locations noted. I have been expanding the Wikipedia page on Prof. Thomas Meehan whose company created the first hybrid hardy Hibiscus 100 years ago.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asa_Gray : Harvard. Boston MA
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Meehan : Philadelphia PA
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvan_Wentworth_Chapman : Apalachicola, FL
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Christoph_Wendland : Germany
* Mr. F. J. Muller, Town of Warrior, Jefferson Co. Al

Mr. F. J. Muller, was the Secretary of the Hoene Warrior and Jefferson Coal Company, in the Town of Warrior, Jefferson Co. Al. Based on his reports he appears to have been a Mining Engineer who engaged in field work involving mineral exploration. The location of the Hoene Warrior and Jefferson Coal mine can be viewed in Google Earth at GPS (33.832688°, -86.817744°), which is about one mile north west of the Town of Warrior. F. J. Muller was also very active in his church in Warrior. Final conformation that this is the correct F. J Muller is that in 1890 he published a paper in a gardening journal and gave as his address Birmingham Alabama, which is in Jefferson County.

American gardening, Volume 11, p. 565, 1890
Contribution to the Etymology of the Word "Apricot.” by F. J. Muller
http://books.google.com/books?id=1PVNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA565&dq=f.+j.+muller+Alabama

Geological Survey of Alabama – 1886, Page 279
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ch8QAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA279&dq=F.+J.+Muller

At the request of Thomas Meehan, F. J. Muller collected specimens of Hibiscus incanus sometime before 1888 in the area about Warrior Alabama. As this area has remained rural, there is a possibility that Hibiscus incanus still exists in the region about Warrior Alabama.


Flora of the southern United States
By Alvan Wentworth Chapman & Daniel Cady Eaton, 1860
http://books.google.com/books?id=eXc5AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA57&dq=incanus+Wendl

3. H. incanus, Wendl. Leaves lanceolate and ovate-lanceolate, not lobed, slightly cordate, acuminate, finely serrate, heary on both sides; flowers pale yellow with a crimson centre, often umbelled; peduneles mostly free from the petioles; eapsule and seeds smooth. — Ponds and marshes, Florida to South Carolina, and westward. June and July. — Stems 2º - 5º high. Leaves 3' - 6' long. Flowers 6' - 8' wide.

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
By Liberty Hyde Bailey
The Macmillan Company, 1915, Page 1486
http://books.google.com/books?id=72EDAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1486&dq=Hibiscus+incanus

15. (Hibiscus) incanus, Wendl. Much like H. Moscheutos, and probably sometimes passing for it in the trade: lvs. smaller and narrower, ovate-lanceolate, rarely lobed, serrate-toothed: fls. sulfur-yellow, pink or white with a crimson eye: caps, ovoid and beaked; stellate-tomentose and loosely hairy. Md. and south in swamps.—Seems to be hardy in the N. with a mulch protection.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Hyde_Bailey

A class-book of botany, 1851, Page 208
by Alphonso Wood
http://books.google.com/books?id=s2RHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA208&dq=Hibiscus+incanus+Wendl
p. (H. incanus, Wendl V) Fls. larger; pet. (4—5' long) of a light sulphuryellow with a purple base. Marshes, Indiana!

The Origin of Dwarf Plants as Shown in a Sport of Hibiscus oculiroseus
Author(s): A. B. Stout
Source: Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 42, No. 8 (Aug., 1915), pp. 429-450
Published by: Torrey Botanical Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2479469

From the data regarding the ancestry of the dwarf plants, it appears that a plant of Hibiscus oculiroseus was obtained by the New York Botanical Garden from the firm of Pitcher and Manda in the year I896. This firm obtained their original stock of this plant from Mr. W. F. Bassett of Hammonton, New Jersey, who introduced the plant (Britton, 1903) into the trade some years before. Bassett obtained the first plant of this type about the year I880 from a colony of wild plants growing near Absecon, New Jersey. The plant was propagated by seed, and introduced into the trade. It was commonly called the "Crimson Eye."

Britton (1903) points out that this type differs from H. Moscheutos in several characters. H. Moscheutos in its most abundant form, at least in the vicinity of New York City, has flowers of a rose color, lighter along the veins and becoming nearly pure white for about I cm. at the base of the corolla lobes. Hibiscus oculiroseus has a rose red or Tyrian rose eye about 2 cm. in radius, beyond which the petal is a sea-foam yellow. The flower pods are ovoid with a long tapering point, the calyx segments are triangular-larqceolate and nearly twice as long as broad. Hibiscus Moscheutos has a nearly globular bluntly pointed pod. On this account he gives the type specific rank under the name H. oculiroseus.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlow_Stout

Exact GPS Location of First Hibiscus Collected In New Jersey

Journal of The New York Botanical Garden
Vol. IV. December, 1903. No. 48; pp. 219-220,239,241 (Plates XVII & XVIII)
The Rose Mallows. by N. L. Britton
http://books.google.com/books?id=WroWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA220&q=Absecon

Replying to your queries, I found the first plant of our Hibiscus Crimson Eye in a triangular marsh, with the N. J. & Seashore Railroad on one side and public roads on the other two, a little below Absecon Railroad Station, some years ago (probably 20 or more years, I made no record, and do not recollect).

* Absecon Marsh GPS (39.420781°, -74.499607°) Hibiscus Collection Point.


Notes Regarding Variability of the Rose Mallows
By A. B. Stout
Torreya, Torrey Botanical Club, Volumes 16-18, 1916, Page 146
http://books.google.com/books?id=jIRNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA146&dq=Hibiscus+sea-foam+yellow

Hibiscus Oculiroseus
Britton (1903) proposed this name giving the rank of a species to the crimson-eyed Hibiscus then in cultivation and rather generally considered a variety of H. Moscheutos. The description by Britton and Brown (1913) is as follows:

"Similar to the preceding species (H. Moscheutos) in stems, foliage and pubescence, and about as high, the flowers about as large. Calyx-segments triangular-lanceolate, acute, nearly twice as long as wide; corolla white with a dark crimson center; capsule ovoid-conic, long-pointed."

The pedigreed cultures of this species grown at the New York Botanical Garden have bred quite true to the ovoid character of the pod. The color of the corolla-blades is a sea-foam yellow rather than white, and the eye is of Tyrian rose, which is a rather intense shade of red. There are further distinguishing characters in the small stigmatic lobes, which here are scarcely expanded ends of the divisions, and in the light yellow or almost white color of the pollen. There is also a considerable difference in the length of the various stamens, those at the base of the stamen-ring having shorter filaments, and there is considerable red in stems and foliage quite as in Races 6 and 7 of Hibiscus Moscheutos described above.

Some lines of descent have bred remarkably true to the above mentioned characters, but others have shown considerable variation in the color of the flowers, the tendency seeming to be toward decreased intensity of the eye area and to the development of pale diffuse colors in the blade. There has also been a pronounced tendency toward dwarfness, as has been discussed by the writer (Stout, 1915).


A Coloring Matter Found in Some Borraginaceae
Author(s): J. B. S. Norton
Source: Missouri Botanical Garden Annual Report, Vol. 1898 (1898), pp. 149-157
Published by: Missouri Botanical Garden Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2992144

Hibiscus lasiocarpos Cav. Stem slightly pubescent; upper leaves ovate lanceolate, subcordate, acuminate, dentate-serrate, glabrous above; petioles adherent to the pedicels; bracts somewhat ciliate hairy; calyx lobes acuminate, prominently nerved; petals distinctly yellow in dried specimens; young capsules with a few short hairs.

The above description characterizes two plants collected by Dr. Joor in Louisiana, one on the lake shore at West End near New Orleans, 1890; the other on the Sabine river opposite Orange, Texas, in 1884. This may be H. incanus Wendl., which is listed from Louisiana, in Riddell's Catalogfus Florae Ludovicianae, but in the Synoptical Flora is given only west to Alabama; but seems to me nearer H. lasiocarpos of which other dried specimens show the yellow color ascribed to H. incanus though not so pronounced as in the Joor specimens. Nash's no. 673 from Florida in the Garden herbarium labeled H. incanus has very hirsute capsules and in that and other characters comes near to H. lasiocarpos, but the pubescence is more like that of H. Moscheutos and incanus. It seems evident that more study of this section of Hibiscus will be necessary to separate well the species composing it.



This message was edited Jun 26, 2012 5:05 PM