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Hydrangea arguta

(Gaudich.) Y.De Smet & Granados (2015)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Asterids Order: Cornales Family: Hydrangeaceae Genus: Hydrangea

kanawao, kanawau, pū‘ahanui [puahanui]

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Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs 2–5 m tall; erect habit.

Stems: Stems with conspicuous deltate to subrhombic leaf scars, hirsute, becoming glabrate.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite or in whorls of 3 per node. Blades oblong–elliptic, elliptic, or oblong–oblanceolate, 10–32 cm long, 3–9.5 cm wide; those of vegetative shoots often larger and broader. Upper surfaces sparsely hirsute, glabrate with age; lower surfaces sparsely to densely hirsute, primarily along veins; blade coriaceous. Margins crenate–serrate, each tooth with a blunt forward appressed lobe or mucor,outer margin of each tooth revolute. Leaf upper surface with conspicuously impressed veins, lower surface with slightly raised veins. Petioles 0.3–4 cm long, dilated at base. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in corymbose panicles usually 5–7 cm long, ca. 8–12 cm wide, the branches subtended by foliaceous sessile bracts 12–25 mm long, caducous. Flowers bisexual (perfect) or unisexual (and then plants apparently functionally dioecious), actinomorphic. Staminate inflorescences deciduous after anthesis; flowers 5(6)-merous. Pistillate flowers 5(6)-merous. Sepals in staminate flowers lanceolate, the lobes 1–5 mm long; in pistillate sepals connate more than ½ their length and adnate to ovary, the lobes lanceolate to ovate, 1–4 mm long. Sepals in pistillate flowers connate more than ½ their length and adnate to ovary, the lobes lanceolate to ovate, 1–4 mm long. Petals of staminate flowers greenish blue, pink to greenish white, yellow, or cream–color 3.5–8 mm long. In pistillate flowers, petals greenish blue to pink, triangular, 0.5–3 mm long. In pistillate flowers, petals greenish blue to pink, triangular, 0.5–3 mm long. Stamens usually 8 or 10 in staminate flowers; filaments distinct or slightly connate at base, staminal filaments unequal, 1–11 mm long; pistillode nearly superior, 2–5 mm long; anthers purple to brown. In pistillate flowers, Stamens absent. Ovary ± inferior, usually 3–4(or 5)-celled, placentation axile or parietal; ovules 1 to numerous per placenta, anatropous; styles 3 or 4 (rarely 5), free or bases fused; stigma papillate. Staminate flower with ovules and a well developed style and stigma, but these non–functional. In pistillate flowers, ovary urceolate, 5.5–6 mm long; style 0.5–3 mm long.

Fruit: Capsules red to maroon; broadly ellipsoid to subglobose; 8–12 mm long; the flesh whitish. Fruit (berry) round; 3/8 inch in diameter; bluish or dark red; fleshy. Seeds many; elliptical; minute with fleshy endosperm.

Ploidy: 2n = 32

Habitat: Often common in wet forest; occasionally in mesic forest.

Elevation Range: (300–)400–1,400(–2,050) m.

Historical Distribution

Images

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Uses and Culture

USES

  • For the purpose of building up physical constitution of the body. According to the ancient belief, this remedy is for the purpose of bringing about conception, with a barren woman. To prepare it take a hatful of the Kanawao fruit and, 10 days before menst

Natural History

Statewide Status

Endemic

Island Status

Kaua'i Endemic
O'ahu Endemic
Molokai Endemic
Lana'i Endemic
Maui Endemic
Hawai'i Endemic

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

The Broussaisia bear small inconspicuous flowers. If these were to stand alone in the axils of the leaves, they would be rarely noticed by insects, and those insects that might notice them would be seldom induced to visit them for the small quantity of ne

Notes

  • (300-)400-1,400(-2,050 on Maui) m.
  • Description digitized by Pumehana
  • Often common in wet forest, occasionally in mesic forest, on all of the main islands except Ni'ihau and Kaho'olawe
  • Tree found in all rain forests from 1,000 to 3,000 feet elevation. It’s native names are pū’aha nui and kanawao. It is never found in dry districts. The family (Saxifragaceae) is widely distributed except in Hawai’i, where it is represented by this one ge

Bibliography

Name Published In: Taxon 64: 750 (2015)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:794 (K, O, Mo, L, M, H [as Broussaisia arguta]); de Smet et al. 2015:753 (COMBNOV, Syn. B. arguta = H. arguta)

Ferns and Flowering Plants of Hawaii National Park by Otto Degener p.166

Treasury of Hawaiian Words in One Hundred And One Categories p.315

Hawaiian Herbs of Medicinal Value by Akaiko Akana p.48-49

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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