Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Plants 0.9–2 m tall.

Stems: Stem 1.2–1.7 cm diam. glabrous, cicatrices depressed obtriangular, 2–2.8 mm tall, 6–6.8 mm wide.

Roots: Roots mycotrophic via vesiculararbuscular mycorrhizae (Koske et al. 1992).

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate, forming a dense spherical, oblate, or cylindrical apical rosette. Blades oblong or broadly oblanceolate, 16–32 x 2.7–6 cm, 4.3–6.2 times longer than wide. Apex obtuse. Base attenuate, sometimes quite petiole-like, in other cases the differentiation of a petiole very indefinite and the leaf clearly sessile. Surfaces glabrous; blades coriaceous. Margins crenulate or entire. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in racemes glabrous, each 12–20–flowered; peduncle 16–25 cm long; sterile bracts elliptic or oblong, 25–88×9–20 mm, the margin crenulate, the apex acute; rachis 14–30 cm long; floral bracts elliptic, 17–43×6–10 mm, the margin denticulate toward apex, the apex acute; pedicels 21–31 mm long; bracteoles oblong or broadly elliptic, 3–7 mm long; hypanthium hemispheric or campanulate, 5–10 mm long, 7–12 mm diam. 1/14–1/9 as long as the corolla; hypanthium hemispheric or campanulate, 5–10 mm long, 7–12 mm diam. 1/14–1/9 as long as the corolla. Flowers tetracyclic, bisexual (perfect), protandrous, zygomorphic, epigynous, pedicellate, resupinate, ornithophilous, large. Calyx lobes triangular or lanceolate,erect, 7–9×2.2–4.5 mm, ⅘ as long as the hypanthium to ⅘ again as long, the margin entire, the apex obtuse or acute. Corolla subbilabiate, white, 65–75 mm long; tube curved, 32–44 mm long, 7.5–9 mm tall at middle, 5–8.5 mm tall at mouth, 4–4.8 times longer than height at middle; dorsal lobes 24–39×1.5–2.5 mm, ¾ as long as to a bit longer than the tube, the apex acuminate; ventral lip oblanceolate, 23–38 mm long×6–9 mm wide. Stamens 5, antisepalous, connate distally for most of their length; Staminal column somewhat exserted, emerging above the dorsal lobes; filament tube 55–62 mm long, 3.7–4.7 times longer than dorsal anthers, pubescent in the upper half; anther tube 3.2–4.2 mm diam. pubescent at the base; dorsal anthers 12–17 mm long; ventral anthers 10–13 mm long, with tufts of white trichomes 1.5–2 mm long at apex. Pollen grains 41–44 μm polar diam. 27–30 μm equatorial diam. prolate, tricolporate, the exine shallowly and minutely reticulate (Selling, 1947). Ovary inferior, 2-loculed, adnate to the hypanthium, flat at apex; placentae axile; ovules numerous; style 1, slender, terete (cylindrical), with a ring of stiff white hairs near the apex; stigma 2-lobed, the lobes appressed and non–receptive as the style grows through the anther tube, pushing out pollen, after which the stigmas spread and become receptive.

Fruit: Capsules oblate; 9–12 mm long; 12–13 mm wide; 6–9 mm thick; the pores numerous; distributed over the entire lateral surface. Seeds unknown.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Endemic to the Kohala Mountains of northwestern Hawai‘i; where it grows in various lowland wet shrubland; montane wet shrubland; and montane wet mixed communities.

Elevation Range: 650–1280 m.