''Cyanea lobata'' is a rare species of flowering plant in the

bellflower family The family (biology), family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order (biology), order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genus, genera of herbaceous plant, herbaceous flowering plant, plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees ...

known by the common name Waihee Valley cyanea. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, where it is known from

Lanai Lānai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. The island's on ...

and

Maui Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of ...

.''Cyanea lobata''.
The Nature Conservancy. It is a federally listed

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

. Like other '' Cyanea'' it is known as ''haha'' in Hawaiian.USFWS Species Reports: Listed Plants
/ref> This Hawaiian lobelioid is a

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

which may exceed 2 meters in height. The stem may have branches. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

bears greenish or purplish flowers. There are two subspecies of this plant, both very rare. One individual of ssp. ''lobata'' was found in Maui in 1982 after several decades of no observations. This plant was later killed in a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

. In 1996 three more individuals were found. The ssp. ''baldwinii'' had not been seen since 1934 when two plants were discovered on

in 2006. These are being carefully watched.Evenhuis, N. L. and L. G. Eldridge, Eds. (2007)
Records for the Hawaii Biological Society for 2006. Part 2.
''Bishop Museum Occasional Papers'' The five plants remaining of this species are threatened by the destruction and degradation of their wet and moist forest habitat. The Lanai subspecies is found in an

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

where the ground is 80% covered by

fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile

lobata Lobata is an order of transparent marine invertebrates belonging to the phylum of Ctenophora in the class Tentaculata, and are commonly referred to as comb jellies or sea gooseberries. There are currently 19 extant known species in the order of ...

Endemic flora of Hawaii Biota of Lanai Biota of Maui Taxa named by Horace Mann Jr. {{Hawaii-stub