Abstract: A total of 74 600 unigenes were obtained by transcriptome sequencing analysis from Hibiscus esculentus. The whole sequence was 52 976 011 bp and a total of 3 448 SSR loci were identified from 3 191 unigenes. 235 sequences contained more than one SSR locus and compound SSR loci sequences were 123. The major types such as trinucleotide and dinucleotide were accounted for 60.79% and 21.43%，respectively. Furthermore，the AG/CT was the predominant dinucleotide repeat type（11.02%），and the AGA/TCT was the predominant trinucleotide repeat type（19.61%）. 8 088 pairs of SSR primers were found by Primer 3.0 and 60 pairs of primers were randomly selected from 87 pairs of effective amplification primers for polymorphism analysis of 32 Hibiscus esculentus samples. 36 primers（60%）showed stable and repeatable polymorphism. According to the UPGMA analysis，32 samples were divided into 2 groups. These results indicated that high frequency and various types of SSR markers could be acquired in Hibiscus esculentus by transcriptome sequencing analysis and abundant SSR markers would provide more reliable markers for genetic diversity analysis and genetic mapping construction in Hibiscus esculentus.

Key words: Hibiscus esculentus, transcriptome, simple sequence repeat, polymorphism