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Heliotropium anomalum

Hook. & Arn. (1832)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Asterids Order: Boraginales Family: Heliotropiaceae Genus: Heliotropium

hinahina, hinahina kū kahakai [hinahina ku kahakai], nohonohopu‘uone [nohonohopuuone] (Ni‘ihau), pōhinahina [pohinahina]

Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Prostrate subshrubs, sometimes forming mats.

Stems: Stems prostrate, decumbent, or sometimes ascending, producing many short side branches along the length of the main stem, 1–5(–10) dm long, flowering stems ascending to erect.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Usually alternate, distributed along the stems or, on young or flowering stems, densely clustered toward the tips and appearing whorled, thick but not fleshy. Blades linear–lanceolate to spatulate, 1–3(–5) cm long, (0.1–)0.2–0.5(–0.8) cm wide. Base blade gradually tapering to base. Surfaces soft, silky, appressed villous (Hawaiʻi) or pilose (outside Hawaiʻi). Margins usually entire. Petiolate or sessile. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in short, congested, bracteate cymes 0.8–1.3 cm long. Peduncles (1.5–)3–6.5 cm long. Flowers bisexual (perfect), actinomorphic or occasionally slightly irregular. Flowers sweetly fragrant. Calyx stiff, deeply 5-lobed, the lobes linear, unequal, 1–2 usually slightly broader than others, 2.5–3.5 mm long, densely appressed pubescent; sepals distinct or connate at base, sometimes to above the middle. Corolla white to pale purple, funnelform, 5–6-lobed, twice as long as the calyx, 6–11 mm long, the tube 5–8 mm long, appressed villous externally, especially on the tube; (4)5(6)-lobed, the tube often with scales at the summit opposite the lobes, formed by invagination of the corolla tube, the lobes imbricate or convolute, rarely valvate. Stamens as many as corolla lobes, subsessile, inserted on the corolla tube, not exserted. Ovary superior, 4-celled, entire, rounded, or 2–4-lobed; ovules usually 4, 2 per carpel, eventually 1 per cell, sometimes fewer by abortion, anatropous, erect, ascending, or nearly horizontal, rarely pendulous; style simple, terminal, seated in the pericarp; stigma with a fertile discoid base and a sterile, apical, often forked appendage.

Fruit: Fruit dry; lobed or unlobed; breaking up into nutlets; nutlets 4; 1–seeded; obovoid; slightly compressed; ca. 1 mm long; appressed villous. Seeds 1–4; endosperm absent or; if present; fleshy and scanty.

Ploidy: 2n = 28

Habitat: occurring in sandy sites in coastal areas.

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Accepted Subtaxa (in Hawai'i) (1)

Heliotropium anomalum var. argenteum A.Gray

Uses and Culture

USES

  • Used in a treatment for ‘ea and pa‘ao‘ao; leaves and flowers were combined with ‘ōhi‘a ‘ai bark (Syzygium malaccense), kukui flowers and cooked fruit (Aleurites moluccana), and kō‘aina (sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum). A treatment of nae holaniku (asthma, etc.) and kohepopo holonae (womb or vaginal problems) uses stems, leaves, and flowers of the hinahina ku kahakai, as well as the leaves, flowers, and fruit of naio (Myoporum sandwicense), the bark of root of ‘uhaloa (Waltheria indica), noni fruit (Morinda citrifolia), kōkea (white sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum) (Chun 1994:89–91).

PROPAGATION/CULTIVATION

  • Heliotropium anomalum can be propagated from seeds, but propagation by cuttings is more successful. The seeds of Heliotropium anomalum are very small. The seeds should be dried on absorbent paper out of direct sunlight before they are planted. Sprinkle the seeds on the top of a well-drained, sterile potting medium. Place the pots under shade and keep moist. Germination generally takes 2 to 3 months. (NTBG 1992; Wagner 1990)
  • Heliotropium anomalum can be easily grown from cuttings without the use of a rooting hormone. Crivellone obtained 100 percent rooting using untreated softwood cuttings with leaves. She also obtained 100 percent rooting with untreated tip cuttings, but transplant survival of the softwood cuttings was much higher than for the tip cuttings. She had very little success with leafless hardwood cuttings. In her work, none of the indolebutyric acid (IBA rooting hormone) treatments improved rooting rates or quality of the roots.
  • Although Crivellone had best results from softwood cuttings, Koob, on the other hand, recommends tip cuttings consisting of leave rosettes with at least 1 inch of stem.
  • Use a well-drained mix for rooting the cuttings. Crivellone found that the best quality root systems developed using 100 percent vermiculite no. 2. NTBG suggests 3 parts perlite to 1 part vermiculite. Bornhorst recommends 1 part black or red cinder, 1 part peat moss, and 2 parts perlite. Mew recommends using sand as a rooting medium under a misting system. Koob suggests using potting mix, sand, or perlite. Some sources recommend that at least two nodes of the cutting should be below the surface of the rooting medium.
  • Cuttings root with or without use of a mist system. Koob recommends rooting the cuttings without using mist. Crivellone recommends intermittent mist for 5 seconds every 6 minutes. Criley found that cuttings root in 3 weeks using an intermittent mist system set to run for 6 to 8 seconds every 5 or 6 minutes; these cuttings were rooted under 30% shade.
  • Roots often begin forming on Heliotropium cuttings within 1 week, but sometimes it may take as long as 2 or 3 weeks for rooting to begin. (Bornhorst 1990; Criley 1999; Crivellone 1991a; Crivellone 1991b; Crivellone 1991c; Crivellone 1991d; Koob 2001; Mew 1987; NTBG 1992) [Data from Herring, E. C., & Criley, R. A. (2003). The Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Web Site: Developing a Webbased Information Resource. HortTechnology, 13(3), 545-548. https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/hawnprop/]

Natural History

Statewide Status

Indigenous

Island Status

O'ahu Indigenous

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Bibliography

Name Published In: Bot. Beechey Voy.: 66 (1832)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
1 Heliotropium anomalum Hook. & Arn. Shady bank. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN WTU
2 Heliotropium anomalum Hook. & Arn. Kaena Point PRESERVED_SPECIMEN van Royen, P. s.n. [10237?] Oahu BISH 1968-00-00
3 Heliotropium anomalum Hook. & Arn. Mahaulepu. Native open coastal vegetation on lithified sand dune substrate. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN Van Ray Tadao 1710 Kauai PTBG 10/21/2008
4 Heliotropium anomalum Hook. & Arn. oahu hawaiian islands, on beach across from dillingham airfield, glider port mokuleia PRESERVED_SPECIMEN palmer, r. 93196 Kauai F 7/5/1993
5 Heliotropium anomalum Hook. & Arn. laie. Coast. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN ray j. davis 7308 IDS 2/11/1968
6 Heliotropium anomalum Hook. & Arn. Mahaulepu, near CJM Stables. Dry Coastal Community PRESERVED_SPECIMEN Jesse Adams JWA_4 Kauai PTBG 3/2/2013
7 Heliotropium anomalum Hook. & Arn. maui zoological and botanical garden, wailuku. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN r. sylva s.n. UConn 1/1/1979
8 Heliotropium anomalum Hook. & Arn. kawailoa bay, about 4 air miles east of koloa, strand and beach. Scaevola, Convolvulus, Causarina.; sandy soils. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN thorne, k.; zupan, c. 10311 SJNM 5/25/1992
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