Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Dicotyledon Literature for Kadua acuminata
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Rubiaceae -- The Coffee Family Bibliography
      Kadua acuminata

Common name(s): au, pilo
General Information
DistributionIn the Hawaiian Islands, endemic to Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
















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Habit
Shrubs or subshrubs, foetid when bruised; stems scandent or arcuate, terete to quadrangular, sometimes slightly winged, 20-40 dm long, lateral branches short, 1-10 dm long, glabrous.
Leaves
Leaves usually widely spaced, firm-chartaceous to subcoriaceous, lanceolate to ovate, elliptic-ovate, elliptic, or occasionally elliptic-obovate, (5-)7-18 cm long, (1.6-)1.8-8 cm wide, lateral veins slightly to prominently raised on lower surface, higher order venation conspicuous to inconspicuous, lower surface glabrous or hirtellous, especially along veins, apex acuminate to long-acuminate, occasionally caudate, base cuneate to rounded, petioles 0.4-4.5 cm long, glabrous or hirtellous, stipules very broadly deltate to broadly deltate, 1.5-9 mm long, glabrous or rarely sparsely hirtellous, apex with a mucro 0.5-7 mm long.
Flowers
Flowers perfect and pistillate, 1(-7) in reduced axillary, cymose inflorescences, peduncles (1-)3-17 mm long, adnate to stem at base or throughout its length, pedicels quadrangular, (5-)10-35 mm long; hypanthium turbinate, quadrangular, sometimes obscurely so, 1.5-4 mm long; calyx lobes narrowly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, occasionally broadly to very broadly ovate, 5-15 mm long, 1.5-4(-10) mm wide, usually somewhat enlarging in fruit, with several small sac-like glands between corolla lobe sinuses; corolla yellowish green, occasionally green or apparently rarely (Kaua`i) greenish white, not or only slightly fleshy, salverform, enlarging slightly at the throat, the tube 7-18 mm long, glabrous or occasionally puberulent, the limb depressed in bud, the lobes 4-11 mm long, inflexed in bud, reflexed at anthesis or, if spreading, then usually becoming reflexed as anthesis proceeds, usually revolute, apex of each lobe with a slender appendage; stamens inserted in upper part of corolla tube; style hirtellous or pilose at base to partly or throughout its length, rarely glabrous, deeply 2-lobed.
Fruit
Capsules woody, broadly turbinate to turbinate-globose, strongly quadrangular or sometimes winged, 6-12 mm long, 5-10 mm in diameter, dehiscing loculicidally across disk, pyrenes tardily separating septicidally, disk thick, somewhat raised, endocarp strongly sclerified.
Seeds
Seeds translucent reddish, cuneiform, sharply angled, minutely reticulate.