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Rosemallow is rated fire resistant, with favorable Hibiscus guidance that depends on the plant form, regional setting and care.
Ohio State's perennial table lists Hibiscus species as mallow and assigns L, meaning low flammability. Its growing notes call for moist soil and sun. For someone choosing a perennial bed, those conditions are part of the useful answer: the favorable rating accompanies a plant that needs a suitable site. Ohio also stresses pruning and clearing dead leaves, twigs and wood to retain fire resistance.
Girona's guide recommends Hibiscus species for gardens at the forest–urban interface. This is a garden-suitability judgment that considers maintenance and plant characteristics alongside fire evidence. Its Hibiscus profile specifies frequent watering, relatively little pruning, and fertile, moist soil with good drainage. A low pruning requirement therefore does not imply a low demand for attention or water.
Yavapai County lists Hibiscus under the label “Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus” and marks it as a shrub. Its fire-resistant group requires irrigation and frequent maintenance. That entry adds favorable regional advice, but it should not be read as a description of the same perennial form in Ohio's table.
The shared genus name brings these recommendations together without making every hibiscus interchangeable. Match the actual plant to the source's description, then judge whether the planting site and available care can meet its needs.
Form
perennial
Rated in
Catalonia, Spain; Ohio / Midwest; Yavapai County, Arizona
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
Yavapai County (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2025-03-14
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension authors Bulletin 34 for Yavapai County. FireApproved publishes 198 exact source owners from its resistant and prone tables and keeps the county boundary visible. County publication scope is regional Arizona context, never statewide scope.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in OH.
Native range
The legacy compatibility field lists OH in native range; its field-level source was not retained.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Guía de pirojardinería: suitable inside or outside the 25-metre maximum-risk zone [girona-2020-iuf-25m-suitability] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Hibiscus spp is rated “RECOMENDADA” by the guide's qualitative IUF garden-suitability method. The method assumes species-specific care and integrates fire evidence with fuel structure, maintenance, origin, invasiveness, and expert fire-service experience.
Listed as Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus — Hibiscus sp.. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.
