Rose of Sharon. I'm confused.

[senua]

I always thought that Rose of Sharon was another name for St John's Wort, the ground cover hypericum. But some sites say RoS is a hibiscus. And others say it is a hypericum.

What is a Rose of Sharon?

I’ve only ever known it as the yellow hypericum but Wikipedia says some people use it for varieties of hibiscus. Not confusing at all!

Honestly I’ve only known it as a quilting pattern where it looks a bit like a tulip. I didn’t realise it was a real thing, and I garden and am pretty ok with plant names. 😂

Starting from basics, (forgive me) all plants have a scientific name which unique to that species. Many plants also have common names in the
country where they grow. It follows that what one country knows as a "bluebell" may not be the same plant that is known as a "bluebell". just as the bird that the Americans know as a robin is not the same as our robin.

I presume that's what is happening with Rose of Sharon

In the UK, Rose of Sharon is the name commonly applied to Hypericum calycinum.

Many of the species in the genus Hypericum are known as St John's Wort. There's at least half a dozen UK species known as St John's Wort, usually with a descriptor, eg Square stemmed St John's Wort. Hypericum is a St John's Wort in the sense that it's a Hypericum (in the UK at least), but isn't usually called St John's Wort.

The one thing to add to that is that the St John's Wort used in herbal medicine is Hypericum perforatum

I think Americans use the name Rose of Sharon for what we call mallow - Hibiscus syriacus whereas in England, as far as I am aware, Rose of Sharon has always meant Hypericum calycinum. Unfortunately, like many Americanisms it is creeping into English and I notice that the RHS lists both plants as Rose of Sharon!

Rose Of Sharon is also one of the characters in The Grapes Of Wrath .

I thought it was Hibiscus syriacus. I’ve only been learning plant names for maybe 4-5 years max and use the RHS site as my main primary reference.

@LemonViolet

I thought it was Hibiscus syriacus. I’ve only been learning plant names for maybe 4-5 years max and use the RHS site as my main primary reference.

I think planttrees may be right, that it’s American usage. With the internet being largely American, search results are dominated by US sites, and people then learn the American term not theUK one

I thought that that hypericum was RoS but then I got the hibiscus coming up in searches so I thought "oh no, I've been getting it wrong all these years".

It sounds like another case of "two countries separated by a common language". Thanks all.

This is why latin plant names come in so useful. The common names can vary so much.

Hibiscus syriacus is known as rose of Sharon in Australia as well.

@yamadori

This is why latin plant names come in so useful. The common names can vary so much.

Until they go and reclassify them!

Until they go and reclassify them! You have to remember every reclassification indicates an advance in knowledge .

And usually books, papers etc list old name as a synonym until everyone has got used to, and the definitive list of names is on-line - whereas there's nowhere definitive to look up which plant may be meant by gillyflower, crazies etc.

there's nowhere definitive to look up which plant may be meant by gillyflower, crazies etc.
Isn't that the Holy Grail? - a definitive reference book that needs updating every now and then.
Write it!! Pandiculation's Nomenclature has a certain ring to it. Or Dint's Hints.

senua I do have a life, you know!

Oh!

I was thinking wtf is a rose of Sharon!

It being USA for mallow might explain why!

In the US they call the Hybiscus syriacus "Rose of Sharon". It caused me no end of confusion. Better to use the Latin names but they keep changing as well!

Better to use the Latin names but they keep changing as well! But not that often, it averages once in a lifetime for any particular species. The majority haven't changed - it just feels there's a lot of change happening because you notice the ones that have changed, not the ones that have stayed the same.

There's a lot happening at the moment now we have DNA analysis available - we're now able to separate species which previously were physically very close, and have found that various lines of inheritance were not as we thought.

At least it's easier now we can search for unknown names ... I can't remember the newfangled Hylotelephium , I have to search for what it used to be.

Is there a single reference online to look up proper plant names?

I tend to google and use the RHS site as a go-to - but they list H.syriacus as Rose of Sharon, so…..?