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Urera kaalae

Wawra (1874)

This name is a synonym of
Touchardia kaalae (Wawra) T.Wells & A.K.Monro

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Rosids Order: Rosales Family: Urticaceae Genus: Urera

Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Small trees or shrubs 3–7 m tall without stinging hairs.

Stems: Sap copious, on exposure to air becoming greenish black, branches weak, hollow, spreading, glabrous, bark pale brown.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades cordate, somewhat asymmetrical, 10–27 cm long, 5–13 cm wide, those of young shoots sometimes up to 40 cm long with petioles up to 24 cm long, seedling leaves ovate and very coarsely serrate. Apex acuminate. Base deeply cordate. Surfaces sparsely covered with reddish resinous glands and at first densely short–hirtellous, becoming sparsely short–hirtellous along the veins on mature leaves; pale green, thin and membranous. Margins irregularly crenate–dentate. Palmately 3–5-veined at base, with 5–7 pairs of additional pinnate veins. Petioles 4–13.5 cm long, glabrate. Stipules connate and intrapetiolar, lanceolate, 2–2.3 mm long, ciliate.

Flowers: Flowers in basically trichotomous, open, paniculate cymes. staminate cymes stouter than pistillate ones, arising horizontally from lower leaf axils, 7–13 cm long, peduncles usually 4–7 cm long, glabrous, each inflorescence branch with basically 1–sided clusters of flowers. pistillate cymes: stiffly ascending above upper leaves, more delicate than staminate cymes, 14–24 cm long, peduncles usually 9–14 cm long, glabrous, each branch with closely spaced 1–sided clusters. Flowers unisexual, the plants dioecious or monoecious and then with pistillate cymes above the staminate ones or on different branches of the same plant. Calyx of staminate flowers depressed–globose, sparsely covered with reddish glands, the lobes ovate–deltate, 1.5–1.7 mm long, margins hyaline; pistillate cymes: Calyx green, laterally compressed, sparsely covered with reddish glands, lobes 3–5, ovate, unequal, ca. 0.3– 0.5 mm long, the interior pair up to twice as wide as exterior pair. Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens white; filaments incurved in bud, elastically reflexed when pollen is shed; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits; in pistillate flowers staminodes absent. Ovary superior (pistillate flowers), psuedomonomerous, 1-celled; ovule 1, basal; style 1; stigma large. Staminate flowers: pistillode absent, ovary vestigial and sterile.

Fruit: Achenes ellipsoid; strongly compressed; 0.8–1 mm long; enclosed only ca. ½ their length by the slightly enlarged and fleshy interior pair of calyx lobes; the exterior pair on margins of the achene scarcely enlarging. Seeds 1 per achene.

Ploidy: 2n = 26*

Habitat: Slopes and gulches in diverse mesic forests.

Elevation Range: 300–760 m.

Historical Distribution

Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Statewide Status

Endemic

Island Status

O'ahu Endemic

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Notes

  • 300-760 m
  • Description digitized by Alyssa Larson
  • Description digitized from the Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii
  • may share a common ancestor with u. caracasana griseb. or related neotropical species

Bibliography

Name Published In: Beiträge zur Flora der Hawaischen Inseln. Flora 57: 542 (1874)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:1313 (O); Note: this will be transferred to Touchardia

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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