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Hibiscadelphus distans

L.E.Bishop & D.R.Herbst (1973)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Rosids Order: Malvales Family: Malvaceae Genus: Hibiscadelphus

hau kuahiwi

Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs or small trees up to 5 m tall with grayish, rounded crown.

Stems: Trunk 5–8 cm in diameter, smooth, grayish bark and prominent petiole scars on young branches, glabrate to stellate puberulent.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades blades broadly ovate, 4–10 cm long. Base shallowly cordate. Upper surfaces sparsely pubescent lower surfaces more densely so but without conspicuous tufting in the vein axils. Margins broadly and sometimes irregularly dentate. Petioles 1.5-5 cm long. Stipules present 1-2 mm long.

Flowers: Flowers solitary, erect, borne near the ends of branches, pedicels 1–3 cm long; involucral bracts 7–9, 12–16 mm long, connate ca. ⅓ their length, limbs narrowly triangular, 1.5– 2.3 mm wide at base. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Calyx tubular, 1.3–2 cm long, 5-lobed but often opening by 2-3 clefts, lobes triangular, 0.3–0.5 cm long, valvate in bud, persistent in fruit or circumscissilly dehiscent toward base before capsule maturity. Corolla usually zygomorphic, tubular to rotate or reflexed, corolla of 5 petals, obovate, bright green, becoming dull reddish, 3–4 cm long, curved and narrowly convolute with the 2 lower petals shorter and usually spreading or reflexed apically, densely stellate pubescent on lower surface and often on upper surface near apex, usually conspicuously veined. Stamens 5 to numerous, monadelphous, forming a staminal column, exserted or exposed apically by the spreading lower petals; antheriferous in upper ⅓–½ below the 5–dentate apex; anthers monothecal. Pollen globose, echinate. Ovary superior, placentation axile, 5-celled; ovules (2)3 per cell; style exceeding the staminal column, branches 5, erect; stigmas terminal, capitate or discoid.

Fruit: Capsules chartaceous; ovoid; ca.2.5 cm long; 1.5 cm in diameter; mesocarp weakly developed and usually adnate to exocarp; endocarp segments 5; boat-like. Seeds 2 per cell; reniform; ca. 5 mm long; sparsely yellowish brown pubescent; with or without endosperm.

Ploidy: 2n = 2n = 40*

Habitat: Remnant dry forest.

Elevation Range: ca. 350 m.

Historical Distribution

Uses and Culture

USES

Ethnobotanical Images

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Natural History

Statewide Status

Endemic

Island Status

Kaua'i Endemic
O'ahu Only found in cultivation

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Bibliography

Name Published In: Brittonia 25: 290 (1973)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:878 (K); Lorence & Wagner 1995:186 (KEY); Staples & Herbst 2005:393 (DESCR)

Champion, S. J. (2020). Biogeography and Phylogenetics of the Hawaiian Endemic Hibiscadelphus, Hau Kuahiwi (Malvaceae) (Doctoral dissertation, University of Hawai'i at Manoa).

Wagner, W. L. (1995). Another New, Nearly Extinct Species of Hibiscadelphus (Malvaceae). Novon, 5, 183-187.

Lorence, D. H., & Wagner, W. L. (1995). Another new, nearly extinct species of Hibiscadelphus (Malvaceae) from the Hawaiian Islands. Novon, 183-187.

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Locality Habitat Basis of Record Description Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
1 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details In Diospyros sandwicensis lowland mesic forest with Myrsine, Nestegis, Canthium, Erythrina, Sapindus, Melia, Lantana, Aleurites. Preserved_Specimen Small trees 8 ft ht, with flowers and fruit. Perlman, S. 7035 Kauai BISH 1987-11-29
2 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details On steeply sloping trail side Preserved_Specimen Ten mature plants plus some young plants and seedlings. Herbst, D.R. 2475 Kauai BISH 1972-06-04
3 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details Preserved_Specimen Baker, J.K. Kauai BISH 1976-07-28
4 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details In Diospyros sandwicensis lowland mesic forest with Myrsine, Nestegis, Canthium, Erythrina, Sapindus, Melia, Lantana, Aleurites. Preserved_Specimen Small trees 8 ft ht, with flowers and fruit. Perlman, S. 7035 Kauai BISH 1987-11-29
5 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details In Diospyros sandwicensis lowland mesic forest with Myrsine, Nestegis, Canthium, Erythrina, Sapindus, Melia, Lantana, Aleurites. Preserved_Specimen Small trees 8 ft ht, with flowers and fruit. Perlman, S. 7036 Kauai BISH 1987-11-29
6 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details Cultivated area. Preserved_Specimen Shrub to 3 meter with many slender, ascending brittle branches. Leaves gray-green. Flowers with green calyx and epicalyx, corolla yellow-green, fading purple with age, staminal column and style purple. Capsules pale green, maturing brown and dehiscing, seeds brown. Lorence, D.H. 10497 Kauai BISH 2015-03-13
7 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details In partial shade. Preserved_Specimen An open scraggly shrub 3 m tall. Petals intermediate between chartreuse and avocado green, aging to maroon. Flowers odorless (afternoon). Lau, J. 2173 Oahu BISH 1986-03-24
8 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details Dryland forest. Preserved_Specimen 8 trees to 12ft tall. Christensen, C. 116 Kauai BISH 1977-01-04
9 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details In remnant native forest of Erythrina sandwicensis and Sapindus oahuensis, on bluff. Preserved_Specimen Montgomery, S.L. Kauai BISH 1976-04-16
10 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details Lowland dry-mesic forest. W/ Aleurites moluccana, Lantana camera, Triumfetta semitriloba, Hibiscus waimeae subsp. Waimeae, Psidium Guajava, Ricinus communis, Syrygium cumini, Cordyline fruitcosa, Coffea arabica, Plumbago aeyla. Preserved_Specimen Outplanted in exclosure. Large shrub about 18 feet tall. Corolla yellow-green. Staminal column and stigmas red. Leaves, bracts, and calyx pubescent. Walsh, S. 623 Kauai BISH 2018-09-10
11 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details N facing native xeric cliffs above native-alien xeric forest; Associated plants: Artemisia, Nototrichium sandwicense, Chamaesyce celastroides, Wilkesia gymnoxiphium, Lobelia niihauensis, Peucedanum, Bidens, Hibiscadelphus distans, Bobea timonioides, Flueggea, Erythrina sandwicensis, Diospyros, Myrsine, Euphorbia haeleeleana, Gahnia aspera var. globosa. Preserved_Specimen 3 m tall tree; 12 cm dia. at base; in fruit. Wood, K.R. 1954 Kauai BISH 1992-06-06
12 Hibiscadelphus distans Locality redacted. Contact Bishop Museum Botany Department for details Erythrina-Sapindus forest. Preserved_Specimen Small tree. Bishop, B. 1318 Kauai BISH 1972-06-04
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