Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Dicotyledon
   Asteraceae -- The Sunflower Family Bibliography
      Wilkesia gymnoxiphium

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
















Click here for detailed USGS map by Jonathan Price
Habit
Erect, unbranched or occasionally sparsely branched, monocarpic or polycarpic rosette shrubs 1-5 m tall.
Leaves
Leaves in whorls of usually 9-15, narrowly sword-shaped, usually 15-50 cm long, 0.4-1.5 cm wide, closely 15-50-nerved, upper surface very sparsely silky, lower surface glabrous to moderately silky, sometimes densely so toward base, both surfaces occasionally minutely glandular and slightly viscid, margins ascending white silky tomentose, basally connate, forming a viscid-glandular, closely sheathing cylinder 1.5-6.5 cm long.
Flowers
Heads usually 40-350(-520) arranged in usually 6-20 verticils, each with 7-15 primary branched peduncles, in elongate, lax inflorescences 3-10 dm long, 1.5-4.5 dm in diameter, peduncles capitate-glandular with hairs usually less than 1 mm long; receptacle broadly rounded, false involucre consisting of usually 10-25 bracts 8-15 mm long; florets ca. 30-225 per head, corollas cream-colored, 4.5-6.5 mm long, distal lobes ca. 0.7-1 mm long; pappus of 7-11(-13) rigid, lanceolate scales 1-3.5 mm long.
Fruit
Achenes 4.5-7 mm long.
Chromosomes
2n = 28*
Notes
Self-incompatible