Description: Short, leafy shrub with large, showy, crimson flowers 
Height: To 2 ft 
Flowers: Large, showy, solitary, brilliant-crimson, 2.5 inches wide; throughout year after rainfall 
Fruit: Oval capsule to 0.8 inches long, few-seeded 
Foliage: Alternate, simple, to 3.2 inches long and wide, broadly oval to weakly lobed, green, weakly toothed 
Spines: Unarmed 
Bark: Smooth greenish-brown with white pin-head sized elongated spots 
Growth Rate: Slow 

Requirements: 
Sun: Usually in partial shade protected by spiny shrubs 
Soil: Gravelly, caliche, others 
Drainage: Well 
Water: Low, drought tolerant 
Maintenance: None 
Propagation: Fresh seed, softwood cuttings 

Native Habitat: Chaparrals, matorral, thornforests 

Wildlife Use: 
Leaves - caterpillars of Columella Hairstreak and Western Checkered Skipper eat Hibiscus leaves but are not recorded from this species 

Comments: Long known as Hibiscus cardiophyllus; inconspicuous until it flowers, one of the most spectacular native flowers