Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrub, 1 m tall.

Stems: Stem unbranched, erect, unarmed, glabrous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades ovate or oblong, 6.5–10 cm long, 3.7–5.8 cm wide. Apex acute or obtuse. Base cordate, often markedly asymmetric. Upper surfaces green, glabrous; lower surfaces light green, with scattered hairs along the midrib. Margins callose–serrulate. Petioles 9–16 cm long, slender, glabrous. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescence (not fully expanded) spreading or pendent, 8–1 1–flowered, sparsely pubescent; peduncle 4–4.5 cm long, slender; rachis 2–2.7 cm long; bracts linear, 5–7 mm long. Flowers bisexual (perfect).; pedicels 12–15 mm long, spreading, bibracteolate at the middle; bracteoles linear, 7.5–8 mm long. Calyx not described. Corolla (in bud) pinkish, glabrous. Fully expanded flowers not seen. Stamens 5, alternate with corolla lobes, connate. Ovary inferior, 2-celled; ovule placentation axile; stigma 2-lobed, wet or dry, appressed and nonreceptive as the style grows through the anther tube, pushing out the pollen, after which the stigmas spread apart and become receptive.

Fruit: Fruits not seen. Seeds not seen.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Known only from the relatively inaccessible type locality on Kaua'i; where it grew on a cliff face at ca. 700 m elevation (S. Perlman; pers. comm.).

Elevation Range: ca. 700 m.