| General Information |
| Distribution | In the Hawaiian Islands,
endemic to
Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Habit
|
Stems usually several, pale to dark red or reddish green, ascending or weakly erect from a short repent base, 1.5-8(-20) cm long, 2-8 mm in diameter toward base, unbranched or occasionally divaricately branched, internodes 1-3(-8) cm long, hirsute, the hairs 0.3-0.5 mm long, older ones sometimes becoming subglabrate.
|
Leaves
|
Leaves yellowish green on upper surface, lower surface whitish green, sometimes with red intercostal areas, usually alternate or opposite in lower part of stem, usually opposite or whorled in upper part, thick and relatively firm, drying chartaceous, usually variable in shape on a single plant, disproportionately large, elliptic-obovate to subrhombic-obovate, broadly elliptic, or orbicular, sometimes subspatulate, (2-)3-6(-7.5) cm long, (1.5-)2-5(-6.5) cm wide, palmately 3-nerved or 5-nerved and the outermost pair of nerves faint, usually with 1-2 additional pairs of lateral nerves above lower 1/3 of blade, veins usually red, slightly impressed on upper surface, upper surface glabrous except usually hirsute toward base, especially along midrib, occasionally (especially on Moloka`i) evenly sparsely appressed hirsute, lower surface hirsute sometimes only along midrib or toward margins, margins flat, ± sparsely ciliate, apex rounded to very broadly obtuse, sometimes some of them obtuse, rarely emarginate, base truncate to rounded, occasionally subcordate or broadly cuneate, petioles 0.7-2(-3) cm long, hirsute, occasionally sparsely so.
|
Flowers
|
Spikes 1 or sometimes several, terminal and axillary or leaf-opposed, (1.5-)2-8(-15) cm long, the rachis 2-3 mm in diameter, glabrous, flowers moderately congested, peduncles
0.5-2(-2.8) cm long, hirsute; ovary ovoid, somewhat embedded in the rachis, apex oblique; stigmas subterminal.
|
Fruit
|
Fruit broadly ovoid, 0.7-1 mm long.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chromosomes
|
2n = 88*
|
|
|
|
|
