| General Information |
| Distribution | Widespread in Polynesia (Hawai‘i, Samoa, Marquesas, Society, and Austral Islands), also occurring in New Caledonia and New Hebrides. In the Hawaiian Islands,
indigenous to
Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
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Habit
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Woody climber ascending trees or
rocks, or sometimes sprawling on the
ground; stems to ca. 2.5 cm in diameter.
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Leaves
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Leaves coriaceous, linear-lanceolate, usually 40‒80 cm long, 1‒3 cm wide, midrib near apex and margin just beyond auricles usually minutely serrulate with prickles 0.2‒0.6 mm long, apex gradually attenuate, auricles usually pale green, narrow,
tapered, to 11 cm long, but usually shorter, abraded or caducous.
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Flowers
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Inflorescences terminal, outer bracts green with salmon orange base, intermediate bracts dark salmon pink, tinged orange, fleshy, ovately boat-shaped, at apex the margin and
abaxial midrib minutely spinulose, inner bracts pink, the innermost thick, almost linear. Staminate spadices 3(4) in clusters, yellowish white, on slender, smooth peduncle to 5 cm long, but usually shorter, spike ca. 10 cm long, consisting of numerous densely crowded stamens, filament
pale orange or buff, to 15 mm long, anther blunt oblong, ca. 0.8 mm long, pollen psilate, pistillodia present, but usually microscopic; pistillate spadices usually 3(4) in clusters, on stout, smooth, trigonous peduncle 3‒4 cm long, to 8 mm in diameter, stigmas (4)5‒10(‒12) or sometimes more, usually in 2 evident rows, black,
staminodia occasionally present.
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Fruit
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Fruiting spadices oblong-cylindrical, 7.5‒9.5(‒15) cm long, 1‒3.2 cm in diameter, berries ripening red, compressed, oblong-columnar, sides parallel, to 10 mm long.
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Seeds
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Seeds ellipsoid falcate, slender, to 1.5 mm long, ca. 0.5 mm wide.
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Notes
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For the Marquesas, synonyms are F. hivaoensis Martelli and F. monticola F. Br. Sykes (2016) treats plants in Cook Islands as F. wilderi, but notes that others have construed them as F. arborea.
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Contributor
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David Lorence
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