''Cyanea truncata'' 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 Punaluu 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 ...

to the islands of

Oahu Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...

and

Molokai Molokai or Molokai ( or ; Molokaʻi dialect: Morotaʻi ) is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its g ...

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 ...

, but it is now

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

. 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 an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological spe ...

. 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, 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 A feral pig is a domestic pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the g ...

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 ther ...

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

kukui ''Aleurites moluccanus'', commonly known as candlenut, is a tree in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae. It grows to about tall and produces drupe fruit. First described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, the species' origin is unclear due to its spread b ...

(''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'' (bandicoo ...

s and

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, 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 ...

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