Abstract
Herbaceous winter-hardy Hibiscus spp. in the section Muenchhusia, also known as rosemallows, are attractive ornamental plants found in temperate environments. These should not be confused with woody winter-hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus L. and related species) which have also been intensively used as ornamental shrubs. During the past 70 years, breeders have attempted to create winter-hardy hibiscus hybrids with novel flower colors resembling the distantly related tropical Chinese hibiscus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. Although direct attempts to hybridize winter-hardy hibiscus with the tropical hibiscus have been unsuccessful, new interspecific herbaceous winter-hardy hibiscus hybrids with a palette of novel flower colors commonly found in tropical hibiscus have been recently introduced. In this review, we outline the historic perspective on interspecific hybridizations in woody and herbaceous winter-hardy hibiscus and discuss breeding approaches to develop herbaceous winter-hardy hibiscus hybrids with novel flower colors and shapes resembling tropical hibiscus cultivars. By creating a broad genetic variability in herbaceous winter-hardy hibiscus hybrids we found a successful approach to increase the range of flower colors and shapes in these species and made them look very like their distant tropical relatives.
Highlights
The genus Hibiscus contains over 300 annual and perennial species belonging to the family Malvaceae (Pfeil et al, 2002; Akpan, 2007) that are among the oldest flowering plants on Earth (Wang, 2010)
We suggest that further intensive hybridization within the Hibiscus species in the section Muenchhusia will eventually result in creating winterhardy hibiscus hybrids with more novel flower colors and color combinations, and flower shapes closely resembling the tropical hibiscus
Recent progress in herbaceous winterhardy hibiscus breeding indicates that broadening genetic variability by intensive interspecific hybridization among hibiscus species in the section Muenchhusia has resulted in appearance of novel flower traits, such as new colors and color combinations, and new flower shapes
Summary
The genus Hibiscus contains over 300 annual and perennial species belonging to the family Malvaceae (Pfeil et al, 2002; Akpan, 2007) that are among the oldest flowering plants on Earth (Wang, 2010). A few herbaceous winter-hardy hibiscus cultivars have been released by Flemings Flower Fields, Lincoln, NE who claim they have created true hybrids between H. moscheutos or H. coccineus and the tropical H. rosa-sinensis, e.g., “Angelique” PP13,734 (United States Plant Patent, 2003a), “Pink Comet” PP13,751 (United States Plant Patent, 2003c), “Cherub” PP16,669 (United States Plant Patent, 2006), and “Satellite” PP23,759 (Justia Patents, 2012). We compare flower phenotypic traits of these novel herbaceous winter-hardy hibiscus hybrids with that of their distant relatives, the tropical H. rosa-sinensis cultivars, and speculate the reasons for the resemblance. We have identified about 10 winter-hardy hibiscus hybrids with flowers resembling those of the modern cultivars of the tropical H. rosa-sinensis One of the best achievements in our breeding program was “Blue Angel”, the first winter-hardy hibiscus hybrid with a bluish flower color (Malinowski et al, 2012a)
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