“It’s almost like tulip fever, though in a much more low-key way,” says the floral artist Brittany Asch (@brrch_floral) about the resurgent interest in tropical hibiscus, the persnickety plant that’s traumatized by frost and frazzled by too much heat, and whose blooms are known to last, poetically, for a single day. By most estimates, there are between 200 and 300 species of hibiscus, among them Hibiscus elatus, or blue mahoe, whose inner bark has been used to tie bundles of cigars; Hibiscus syriacus, a.k.a. the rose of Sharon, a hardy deciduous shrub with smaller, teacup-like flowers; and Hibiscus sabdariffa, or roselle, whose edible calyxes are made into dyes, jams, teas and tart red drinks (such as Jamaican sorrel and Senegalese bissap) beloved in Latin American, Caribbean and African cultures. Tropical hibiscus flowers can be white, yellow, orange, red, pink, lavender, magenta, brown, green, gray and even blue. The most alluring are kaleidoscopic, with multiple hues mottling a single blossom. Pictured here is the perennial Hibiscus mutabilis, which changes colors as it blooms. If ever a flower was suited to our hyper-visual moment, it is hibiscus. Rather than remain a potted plant on the patios of grandparents, it has been adopted by the young and social media-savvy. Kyrsten Malulani Pia Kaitoku, 26, and Ryan Kala‘iakea Quick, 28, the owners of @voo.dooplants, an Oahu-based online purveyor of flora, explain that most of their clients are in their 30s or younger — among them “Instagram-famous people,” as they put it, who buy hybrids with names like Black Dragon, Twisted Sister and Princess Moana. “These grandiose blooms appeal well to the younger crowd,” says Darren Eminian, 51, the president of the International Hibiscus Society and the Southern California Hibiscus Society, who has nearly 300 hibiscuses of his own in his yard. “Total clickbait.” Read the full story, by @amandafortini, at the link in our bio. Video by Gavin Mcintyre (@gavin_mci).