Cyanea koolauensis

• Hawaiian Name: Haha
• Conservation Status: Endangered
• Distribution: O’ahu (Ko’olau mountains)
• Date photographed: 11/14/10
• Ease of viewing: Difficult
• *Identification: Form– Stems woody, 1-1.5 m long. Leaves– whitish on lower surface; linear to narrowly elliptic; blades 16-36 cm long by 1.5-4 cm wide; margins callose-crenulate to subentire; petioles 1.5-4.5 cm long. Flower– hypanthium obconical to turbinate, 6-12 mm long; calyx lobes connate, 2-8 mm long; corolla dark magenta, 5-9 cm long.
• Phylogenetic comments: With the recent nomenclature revisions, Hawaiian Lobeliads of the genus Rollandia have been incorporated back into Cyanea. Because Cyanea angustifolia is already used to describe another species, Rollandia angustifolia has been renamed Cyanea koolauensis.
  
• My notes: We went into one of the gulches that this species was known to be found 15-20 years ago. Unfortunately we saw none, highlighting the plight of some of our native plants. Luckily, there was an individual some distance away that I was able to take a picture of.
  
• Links:Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, UH Botany, Native Hawaiian Plants- Cyanea
• Additional photos:

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i