Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Subshrub, 30–75 cm, 2–to 5–branched from base, each major stem erect, unbranched or vigorous plants with 2 or 3 additional branchlets each up to ca. 25 cm long, conspicuously shaggy villous with dark reddish brown trichomes 3–5 mm long.

Stems: Stems erect, thick, 6.8 mm diam. prominently ringed with leaf scars, densely shaggy long–villous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, clustered at upper 3 to 7 nodes. Blades usually falcate, elliptic to oblanceolate, 7–18 x 4.5–9 cm. those of a pair usually unequal, one 30–50% larger than the other, the blades strongly asymmetrical. Apex acuminate. Base attenuate to cuneate, inequilateral, one side (2–)10–25 mm shorter. Upper surfaces moderately villous; lower surfaces moderately long–villous, densely so along the veins, the hairs longer and more conspicuous toward the base; blades thick. Margins finely crenate–senulate, the teeth widely spaced. Petioles 2.5–4(–7) cm long, densely shaggy long–villous, base sometimes clasping the stem or perfoliate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers (1–)7–9 in cymes with 2 orders of branching, internodes, peduncle, and pedicels densely long–villous, peduncles 8–20 mm long, pedicels 11–15 mm long, distinct or occasionally connate bracts, lowermost bracts 4–10 mm long, ovate, usually obscured by the long–villous pubescence. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Calyx 2–5(6)-lobed, weakly zygomorphic, pale green, ellipsoid, 12–17 mm long, cleft to 1/3 its length, glabrous internally except a few hairs on the distal portion of the lobes, villous externally, persistent after anthesis, the tube 7–10 mm long, the lobes 5–7 mm long, triangular, slightly asymmetrical. Corolla usually bilabiate, white, the tube narrowly funnelform, slightly curved upward, 14–15 mm long, glabrous externally, glandular–puberulent internally on lobes and around throat, upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip 3-lobed, the lobes imbricate in bud, upper 2 lobes 5–10 mm long, lateral 2 lobes 8–12 mm long, lowermost lobe 8–12 mm long, ovate, subequal to slightly longer than the other 4 lobes. Stamens 5, inserted about halfway up corolla tube, the 2 upper Stamens fertile, others staminodial, +/– with abortive anthers; fertile anthers coherent positioned in throat of corolla tube, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits or occasionally by apical pores. Ovary superior, oblong–ovoid, 2-carpellate, 1-celled, placentation parietal, placentas 2, ± intruded, rarely joined in center and dividing ovary into 2 cells; ovules numerous, anatropous, glabrous, apex rounded or with a stylar beak; style present or absent; stigma capitate, 2-lobed, lobes usually elliptic.

Fruit: Berries not seen; but immature fruit ca. 10 mm long; ellipsoid; glabrous. Seeds unknown.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Known only from the north–facing wet cliffs of Kekoiki in the Makaleha Mountains of northeastern Kauai; Hawaiian Islands. <i>Cyrtandra paliku</i> ranges in elevation from 800 to 850 m; and occurs only on the Kekoiki summit area of Mount Namahana; where it is restricted to shaded north–facing basalt rock faces; which are windswept and often mist–shrouded. A single population of about 70 plants is known on vertical saturated walls with <i>Selaginella arbuscula</i>. This population extends for 0.1 km surrounded by patches of lowland wet forest. Flowering has been observed during February of 1993 and May of 1998. Fruits have been observed during November of 1993. Dominant tree species in this region include <i>Metrosideros polymorpha</i> Gaudichaud–Beaupre var. <i>glaberrima</i> (H. Leveille) H. St. John; <i>M. polymorpha</i> Gaudichaud–Beaupre var. <i>dieteri</i> J. Wyndham Dawson & Stemmermann; and <i>Cheirodendron fauriei</i> Hochreutiner. Associated understory trees and shrubs include <i>Broussaisia arguta</i> Gaudichaud–Beaupre; <i>Dubautia knudsenii</i> Hillebrand; <i>Perrottetia sandwicensis</i> A. Gray; <i>Hedyotis terminalis</i> (Hooker & Arnott) W. L. Wagner & Herbst; <i>Hedyotis tryblium</i> Herbst & W. L. Wagner; <i>Freycinetia arborea</i> Gaudichaud–Beaupre; and <i>Lobelia hypoleuca</i> Hillebrand. Additional associates include the herbaceous <i>Peperomia hesperomannii</i> Wawra and pteridophytes such as <i>Dicranopteris linearis</i> (Burman f.) Underwood f.; <i>Selaginella arbuscula</i>; <i>Sadleria pallida</i>; and <i>S. squarrosa</i>. <i>Machaerina angustifolia</i> (Gaudichaud–Beaupre) T. Koyama is the dominant sedge of this region. Major threats to <i>Cyrtandra paliku</i> include invasive introduced weeds such as <i>Clidemia hirta</i> (L.) D. Don; <i>Paspalum conjugatum</i>; and <i>Rubus rosifolius</i>; along with landslides; which are not uncommon along steep; wet–forested slopes and cliffs; especially during intense tropical storms.

Elevation Range: 800–850 m.