Cyanea acuminata

• Hawaiian Name: Haha
• Conservation Status: Endangered
• Distribution: O’ahu (Ko’olau mountains)
• Date photographed: 6/22/2013
• Ease of viewing: Difficult
• *Identification: Form– Shrub, 0.3-2 m tall Leaves– oblanceolate to narrowly obovate or elliptic, blades 11-32 cm long, 3-9 cm wide, base attenuate to cunate. Flower– calyx lobes narrowly triangular, 2-5 mm long; corolla white, 30-35 mm long, 3-4 mm wide.
• My notes: I was given some general directions on finding this particular guy, so I was pretty please when I actually found the plant. I’ve seen Cyanea acuminata only once before at the Poamoho summit and it looked quite different. It had fat leaves and was very prostrate. In this sheltered gulch, this C. acuminata was about 2 feet tall.
• Links: Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, UH Botany, Native Hawaiian Plants- Cyanea
• Additional Pics:

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i