Agro-morphological characterization of Hibiscus germplasm is a fundamental prerequisite to initiate plant breeding programs. The prime aim of this study was to characterize 107 Hibiscus syriacus genotypes using agromorphological characteristics and to collect useful data to facilitate the breeders for H. syriacus breeding programs. In this study, it has been recorded that this species appears to have innumerable variability in the morphological characteristics among Korean and exotic cultivars. Plant height of Korean and exotic H. syriacus cultivars were recorded and data revealed that the maximum plant height (143 cm) was recorded in ‘Woodbridge’ which had tall-erect plant shape. ‘Serenade’ and ‘Saemaeul’ cultivars had vigorous growth and had plant height of 141 and 137 cm, respectively and both had tall-erect plant shape. The diameters of H. syriacus flower ranged from 4.1 cm in ‘Kakchang’ to 9.4 cm in ‘Pyonghwa’. The data analysis exhibited that analysis flowers of ~ 86% of Korean cultivars had single type of flower’s form compared to exotic cultivars (~ 61%). The data related to flower shape showed that among Korean native cultivars the maximum plants (52.1%) had intermediate type of flowers followed by bowl (26.1%) and flat type (21.8%). Similar trend in exotic cultivars were observed for flower shape. In case of petal shape among total cultivars studied, 27.9% native H. syriacus plants had broard type of petals whereas 17.7 exotic cultivars had intermediate type of petals. Present results indicated high variability among H. syriacus cultivars, which presents great significance for Hibiscus breeding programs and for genetic studies in order to develop new varieties of H. syriacus.

Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results and Discussion
Acknowledgements
References

• Sung Hwan Bae(Department of Horticulture, Kyungpook National University)
• Adnan Younis(Department of Horticulture, Kyungpook National University, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan)
• Yoon-Jung Hwang(Department of Life Science, Sahmyook University)
• Ki Byung Lim(Department of Horticulture, Kyungpook National University) Corresponding author