''Cyanea truncata'' is a rare species of flowering plant in the bellflower family known by the common name Punaluu cyanea. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found elsew ...

to the islands of

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

and

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 ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, but it is now critically endangered. It exists in cultivation and some individuals have been planted in appropriate habitat.Bruegmann, M. M. & V. Caraway. (2003)
''Cyanea truncata''

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

. IUCN 2010
www.iucnredlist.org
. Retrieved on 1 March 2011. 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> By the 1980s this Hawaiian lobelioid was known only from the Koʻolau Mountains of Oahu, and the last plants were seen in 1983.''Cyanea truncata''.
The Nature Conservancy. No more were found until 1998 when one plant was discovered; it died in 2001 but by then its offspring were being propagated. In 2004 three plants were discovered and these were still alive two years later. In the meantime, the offspring of the propagated individual had been planted in appropriate habitat. Some of these are still alive today, growing inside an enclosure along with another endangered plant, '' Schiedia kaalae'', where they are protected from

feral pig The feral pig is a domestic pig which has gone feral, meaning it lives in the wild. They are found mostly in the Americas and Australia. Razorback and wild hog are Americanisms applied to feral pigs or boar-pig hybrids. Definition A feral pi ...

s that rove the area.USFWS
''Cyanea truncata'' Five-year Review.
August 2007. The aforementioned pigs were a major force that drove the plant to near extinction. The animals are extremely destructive to the habitat, rooting the soil, tearing down larger vegetation, uprooting small plants and

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

s, and transporting the seeds of

exotic plants An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

into the area. Exotic plants that threaten this and other rare natives include

kukui ''Aleurites moluccanus'', the candlenut, is a flowering plant, flowering tree in the Euphorbia, spurge Family (biology), family, Euphorbiaceae, also known as candleberry, Indian walnut, ''kemiri'', varnish tree, ''nuez de la India'', ''buah ker ...

(''Aleurites moluccanus''), ti (''Cordyline fruitcosa''), and Christmas berry (''Schinus terebinthifolius'').

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

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 also damage the plants.

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5197423 truncata Endemic flora of Hawaii Biota of Oahu Biota of Molokai