The development of agriculture over the last decades has resulted in a continuous change of the natural vegetation of Egypt. Several species widely cultivated as economic crops or ornamentals. Numbers of species which escaped from cultivation and naturalized in naturals habitats are increasing. It is necessary to study the changes in the natural vegetation and traces the new species. The present study undertakes a survey, taxonomical revision and numerical analysis of the genus Hibiscus L. in Egypt including wild and cultivated species. The taxonomic treatment based on collecting of fresh materials from the studied species, in addition to the investigation of the herbarium specimens as well as information from the literatures. Eleven species of Hibiscus were reported in this study, from which there are 5 wild species (H. diversifolius Jacq., H. micranthus L. f., H. vitifolius L., H. sabdariffa L. and H. trionum L.) and there are 6 cultivated species (H. cannabinus L., H. mutabilis L., H. rosa-sinensis L., H. schizopetalus (Mast.) Hook. f. in Curtis, H. syriacus L. and H. tiliaceus L.). An identification key to the species of Hibiscus is provided. Valid names and synonyms are updated from online sources. Scientific descriptions provided the characters of leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds based on the herbarium specimens and completed from fresh materials and literatures are given. Distribution of wild species in their phytogeographical regions are provided. Type specimen, habitat, selected specimens and economic importance are provided for each species. The numerical analysis based on thirty six morphological characters including vegetative, flowers and fruits parts of the studied species. SPSS Statistics version 22 used to get morphometric analysis. The numerical analysis revealed two main clusters. The first cluster included 3 species, viz. H. micranthus L. f., H. vitifolius L. and H. trionum L. The second cluster included two groups: group (a) viz. H. diversifolius Jacq., H. syriacus L., and H. tiliaceus L., and group (b) viz. Hibiscus cannabinus L., H. mutabilis L., H. rosa-sinensis L., H. sabdariffa L. and H. schizopetalus (Mast.) Hook. f. in Curtis.

Pollen grain morphology and seed coat characters of 11 cultivars belonging to two species of genus Hibiscus (Family Malvaceae) namely H. esculentus (H. Abelmoschus) and H. sabdariffa were investigated. This study was carried out using light microscope (LM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Pollen morphology of this genus is fairly uniform. Generally radially symmetrical apolar, mostly spheroidal, pantoporate. Seed exomorphic characters revealed four types of ornamentations; reticulate, ocealate,foveolate andruminate. Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was employed to characterize those taxa. Thirty one bands of seed protein profiles have been constructed from the gel. The produced dendrograms were analyzed by STATISCA program using UPGMA clustering method showed a close affinity among the seven H. esculentus cultivars and the four H. sabdariffa cultivars.