Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Dicotyledon Literature for Cyrtandra sandwicensis
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Gesneriaceae -- The African Violet Family Bibliography
      Cyrtandra sandwicensis
General Information
DistributionIn the Hawaiian Islands, endemic to O`ahu.

Gesneriaceae - Cyrtandra sandwicensis















Click here for detailed USGS map by Jonathan Price
Habit
Shrubs 0.5-2.5 m tall; stems usually many-branched.
Leaves
Leaves opposite, borne on upper 3-8 nodes, those of a pair unequal, asymmetrical, chartaceous, broadly elliptic, elliptic, or occasionally ovate, 6.5-20(-25) cm long, 3.2-8(-10) cm wide, upper surface moderately to sparsely appressed pilose, lower surface densely to occasionally moderately velvety short-pilose, the hairs whitish, margins serrate to serrulate, apex acuminate, base asymmetrical, attenuate to cuneate, petioles (1.2-)2.5-9(-12.5) cm long.
Flowers
Flowers 1(-3) arising in the leaf axils, densely pilose throughout, peduncles (0-)5-15 mm long, pedicels 7-15 mm long, elongating to 20-26 mm long in fruit, bracts linear-lanceolate, 2-7 mm long; calyx actinomorphic or nearly so, green when fresh, 7-12 mm long, cleft ca. 1/2 to occasionally as much as 2/3 its length, the lobes narrowly deltate, sometimes tardily separating, densely pilose, a few scattered hairs on the lobes within; corolla white, tube cylindrical at first, becoming narrowly ellipsoid, flaring slightly at mouth, 8-14 mm long, ca. 3-7 mm in diameter medially, densely white pilose, upper lobes reniform, 2-4 mm long, ca. 5-6 mm wide, lower lobes reniform-orbicular, 3-5 mm long, 5-6 mm wide; ovary glabrous, becoming puberulent after anthesis; style ca. 3 mm long, villous, glabrate with age.
Fruit
Berries white, ovoid-ellipsoid, 0.8-1.5 cm long, puberulent.
Seeds
Seeds 0.3-0.4 mm long.
Chromosomes
2n = 34*