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Malvaceae family

Brown Indianhemp Hibiscus cannabinus

Also known as: Kenaf

Brown Indianhemp is an introduced annual herb, found in the lower 48 states and Puerto Rico. It grows to 7 ft.

More about this plant

Kenaf [etymology: Persian], Hibiscus cannabinus, is a plant in the family Malvaceae also called Deccan hemp and Java jute. Hibiscus cannabinus is in the genus Hibiscus and is native to Africa, although its exact origin is unknown. The name also applies to the fibre obtained from this plant, similar to jute. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 11 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Height
7 ft
Lifespan
Annual
Foliage
Broadleaf
In the garden
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~20 caterpillar species

Hibiscus supports ~20 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus.

Recorded feeding on Hibiscus in North America, including:

Anomis erosa · Yellow Scallop Moth ✦ Acontia delecta · owlet moth Anomis commoda · owlet moth Anomis flava · Cotton Looper Automeris io · giant silk moth Bagisara brouana · owlet moth
+ 8 more species →
Bagisara rectifascia · Straight Lined Mallow Moth Chionodes hibiscella · twirler moth Crocidosema plebejana · leafroller moth Eudryas unio · Pearly Wood-Nymph Halysidota cinctipes · Florida Tussock Moth Helicoverpa zea · Corn Earworm Hyphantria cunea · tiger moth Loxostege albiceralis · snout moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0). ✦ = recorded on this exact species.
✦ Bees specialist-bee host · 1 bee visitor

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Hibiscus is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →

1 native & managed bee species is documented visiting Brown Indianhemp :

Apis mellifera · Honey Bee
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024. Visitor records (observations, not exhaustive) from Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI →
Wildlife & visitors 1 bird

Open records of who else uses Brown Indianhemp — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 1 bird species (fruit, seed, browse):

Numida meleagris · Helmeted Guineafowl
Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
How we know this (1) Methods & honest limits
Photosynthesis Direct fact

A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.

Kattge, J. et al. TRY plant trait database — Categorical Traits Dataset (2012).
Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →
Sources for this entry (22) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[11] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[12] Photosynthetic pathway — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[13] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[14] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)
[17] Other common names — Wikidata (CC0)
[19] Flower-visitor value (derived) — Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI
[20] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[21] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[22] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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