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Re: Rose of sharon hips

Title: Re: Rose of sharon hips
on 11/5/01 5:04 PM, Kevin Topek at ktopek@houston.rr.com wrote:

Rose of Sharon is also known as Althea, for which we named our daughter.
Kevin Topek

Ah, we risk some common-name confusion here. As Jude mentioned, Rose of Sharon is the common name for Hibiscus syriacus (and also Hibiscus sinosyriacus, according to PFAF.org). I grew this in Seattle to the great delight of my neighbors and myself; it's a beautiful plant. PFAF also says Hibiscus syriacus is sometimes called Shrubby Althea, a name I'm not familiar with. But the plant with the botanical name Althea is an altogether different plant commonly known as Marsh Mallow, not Rose of Sharon. Hibiscus and Marsh Mallow are both in the Malvaceae family, (my buddy and fellow listserv-mate Rick Valley's daughter is also named Althea). And to confuse matters more, the Malvaceae also contains the genus Alcea, common name Hollyhock, whose flowers look a lot like Hibiscus too.

Toby
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