Photo taken on Jul 09, 2011 | Photo by Andrei Katrovskiy
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Fluffy five-snouted stigmas surrounded by multiple stamina — looks like a second flower, located a couple of inches in front of the main part. Why such strange construction? Looks like an insect visiting the flower to take some nectar will not get in touch with the pollen and pistil and thus it cannot pollinate the flower?

Let's see: different sources repeat that tropical Malvaceae are pollinated by hummingbirds — and, by the way, big red flowers are most attractive for them. Maybe a hummingbird hovering above a flower will fetch the pollen on it's head and tail? Here they say how it's happening: pollen sticks to its head, while the bird feeds on nectar. This pollen is carried to the next hibiscus flower and contacts the stigma (but how? no info…). Here is another photo. That's why tropical hibiscus has such interesting form. In our latitudes Malvaceae look similar, but the pistil is shorter.

Well, if we look at it again, we'll see that hummingbirds are native to Americas while the Chinese hibiscus is native to China and Malaysia. Thus, originally they have nothing to do with each other. There are some nectar-feeding birds in Indonesia, too: sunbirds (sometimes they even can hover like hummingbirds). But reports of the sunbirds steeling the nectar from hibiscus without pollinating are found much more often (e.g. one, another one), than pictures showing that the bird has some chance to get smudged in pollen if it sits on a branch next to the flower. Well, it's all mere guessing when speaking of the plants tamed so long ago. Maybe in this case the long pistil is just for pollinating by humans :).winter-red

species Chinese hibiscus, china rose or shoe flower Hibiscus rosa-sinensis