''Cyanea procera'' is a rare species of flowering plant in the bellflower family known by the common name Molokai cyanea. It is endemic to Hawaii, where it is known only from the island of

Molokai Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length an ...

. 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 and inv ...

of the United States. Like other '' Cyanea'' it is known as ''haha'' in Hawaiian.USFWS Species Profile: Listed Plants
/ref> This plant has been reduced to very low numbers. At one time it was thought to be extinct. By 1992 there were four plants known.USFWS
''Cyanea procera'' Five-year Review.
January 2008. By 2005 there was only a single plant of this species existing in the wild. Plant propagation efforts have not been successful. This

Hawaiian lobelioid The Hawaiian lobelioids are a group of flowering plants in the bellflower family, Campanulaceae, subfamily Lobelioideae, all of which are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. This is the largest plant radiation in the Hawaiian Islands, and indeed t ...

is a tree which looks superficially like a palm. It is known from montane wet forests on Molokai, a habitat with a dense, closed canopy and a shady understory. Associated plants include '' Asplenium'' spp., pilo (''Coprosma ochracea''), māmaki (''Pipturus albidus''), olonā (''Touchardia latifolia''), '' Sadleria'' spp., ōpuhe (''Urera glabra''), ''

Cheirodendron ''Cheirodendron'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Araliaceae. All six species in the genus are endemic to Polynesia. The five Hawaiian species are generally called ''ōlapa'', and occur in wet forests on all major islands as well as ...

'' spp., '' Cibotium'' spp., ''

Machaerina ''Machaerina'' (twigrush) is a genus of flowering plants in the sedge family. Its species occur in tropical America, the West Indies, Malesia, Australia and the Pacific region. The name comes from the Greek ''machaira'' (a large knife), alluding ...

'' spp., pua kala (''Cyanea sonenocalyx''), ōhā wai nui (''Clermontia arborescens''), '' Cyrtandra'' spp., and ''

Diplazium ''Diplazium'' is a genus of ferns that specifically includes the approximately 400 known species of twinsorus ferns. The Greek root is ''diplazein'' meaning ''double'': the indusia in this genus lie on both sides of the vein. These ferns were ...

'' species. The habitat is threatened with degradation and destruction by a number of forces, especially feral pigs and goats. Plants are damaged by

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...

s, snails,

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

s, and birds. They face competition from

exotic plant species Exotic may refer to: Mathematics and physics * Exotic R4, a differentiable 4-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the Euclidean space R4 *Exotic sphere, a differentiable ''n''-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the ordinar ...

such as castor bean (''Ricinus communis'') and

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

(''Musa'' spp.).

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile

procera Procera is a hypothetical clade of amphibians that includes salamanders and caecilians but not frogs. A close relationship between salamanders and caecilians is a competing hypothesis to the more widely supported view that salamanders and frogs a ...

Endemic flora of Hawaii Biota of Molokai Plants described in 1888 {{Campanulaceae-stub