Abstract: The taxonomy of Hibiscus species in section Lilibiscus in Fiji is reappraised in the light of recent field and morphological studies. Six pre-European contact species are recognized. These comprise four Fiji endemic species, three of which are new and described: H. bennettii L.Thoms. and Braglia from Mt. Delaikoro, Vanua Levu; H. bragliae L.Thoms. from Ovalau; and H. macverryi L. Thoms. and Braglia from Macuata Province, Vanua Levu and Taveuni. The fourth Fiji endemic, Hibiscus storckii Seem., was first collected on Taveuni in 1860 and is here reinstated. Hibiscus cooperi Hort. Ex Lemaire, a species generally associated with the South Pacific region, has been confused in recent times with H. storckii. Hibiscus cooperi is lectotypified and reinstated. Hibiscus cooperi and H. rosa-sinensis L. are both considered ancient, pre-European introductions into the Pacific Islands. The Fiji archipelago is recognized as a secondary center of diversity and speciation in sect. Lilibiscus in the South Pacific. A botanical key is provided for the six Lilibiscus species that were present in the South Pacific Islands prior to European contact. All four Fiji endemic Lilibiscus species fall into the IUCN Critically Endangered (CR) Red List category and are highly threatened in the wild from climate change and associated extreme events including tropical cyclones, flooding, and landslides, as well as displacement by environmentally invasive species and through hybridization with introduced Hibiscus species. They are in urgent need of more intensive field survey followed by complementary in situ and ex situ conservation actions.

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LILIBISCUS (Hochreutiner 1900; lectotype H. rosa-sinensis L., Van Borssum Waalkes 1966) is a relatively small section in Hibiscus, nested within section Bombicella (Pfeil and Crisp 2005). The progenitor of this group is considered to have arisen within the past one million years in Madagascar (Koopman and Baum 2008). Section Lilibiscus comprises about 23 species found mainly on midoceanic volcanic islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Defining the features that set apart species in sect. Lilibiscus is problematic: As with other sections of Hibiscus, the currently recognized characteristic features of these section groups do not appear to represent synapomorphies (Pfeil and Crisp 2005).

Updating the original description of the section by Hochreutiner (1900), with information from molecular and phylogenetic studies of the Tribe Hibisceae (Malvaceae) on Madagascar (Koopman and Baum 2008), the recent review of the Hawaiian Lilibiscus species (Huppman 2013), Van Borssum Waalkes (1966), Cafferty and Cheek (1996), Giraud (2013) and our work in Fiji, the sect. Lilibiscus is described as follows:

Habit evergreen, woody shrubs to small, multistemmed trees, usually 2-8 m tall. Branches typically erect to spreading, semipendulous in H. schizopetalus (Dyer) Hook.f. and semi prostrate-ramified in H. fragilis DC. Leaves [+ or -] discolorous, glossy on upper surface, glabrous or glabrescent, penninerved, most frequently entire/unlobed, [+ or -] ovate/lanceolate, less commonly elliptic or orbicular; heterophyllous in several species, including deeply divided, 3 (-5)-lobed, juvenile and intermediate leaves in three Mascarene Island species (viz. H. boryanus DC., H. genevii Bojer ex Hook., H. liliiflorus Cav.). Divided leaves often persisting on mature...