Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Dicotyledon Literature for Myrsine helleri
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Primulaceae -- The Myrsine, Primrose Family Bibliography
      Myrsine helleri

Common name(s): kolea, `oliko
General Information
DistributionIn the Hawaiian Islands, endemic to Kaua`i.















Click here for detailed USGS map by Jonathan Price
Habit
Branched shrubs 2-5 m tall; branches dark reddish brown, slender, glabrous.
Leaves
Leaves clustered toward the tips of the branches, narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate or linear-elliptic, 4-7 cm long, 0.5-1.4 cm wide, submarginal vein present, glabrous, upper surface black punctate, lower surface inconspicuously reticulate, margins entire and slightly thickened, apex long-acuminate and often slightly hooked, base cuneate, subsessile.
Flowers
Flowers apparently perfect, 1-3 in bracteolate fascicles among and slightly below the leaves, pedicels 2-4 mm long, glabrous; calyx lobes ca. 2 mm long, glabrous, punctate, margins ciliate; petals oblanceolate, ca. 3.5 mm long; anthers ca. 1.5 mm long, apex with a short tuft of hairs; stigma capitate-angled.
Fruit
Drupes bluish black at maturity, globose, ca. 8 mm in diameter.