Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Plants 0.9–4 m tall.

Stems: Stem 0.7–1.6 cm diam. glabrous, cicatrices shallowly obdeltate, shallowly obtriangular, widely obtrullate, or narrowly transversely elliptic, 1.7–3.8 mm tall, 2.5–6 mm wide.

Roots: Roots mycotrophic via vesiculararbuscular mycorrhizae (Koske et al. 1992).

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate, forming a dense spherical, oblate, or cylindrical apical rosette. Blades elliptic or narrowly elliptic, 12–30×1.2–3.3 cm, 6–13 times longer than wide. Apex acuminate. Base attenuate, sometimes quite petiole-like, in other cases the differentiation of a petiole very indefinite and the leaf clearly sessile. Surfaces glabrous; blades coriaceous. Margins crenulate or subentire. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in racemes 5–10 (very rarely 1 and then erect and terminal), each 20–32–flowered, glabrous; peduncle 8–34 cm long; sterile bracts elliptic or narrowly elliptic, 18–100×6–15 mm, the margin crenulate or subentire, the apex obtuse, acute, or acuminate; rachis 10–44 cm long; floral bracts lanceolate, elliptic, or broadly elliptic, 8–35×3–8 mm, the margin crenulate, the apex obtuse, acute, or acuminate; pedicels 12–25 mm long; bracteoles oblong or narrowly oblong, 1.5–6 mm long; hypanthium campanulate or obconic, 5–8 mm long, 4– 8 mm diam. 1/11–1/6 as long as the corolla. Flowers tetracyclic, bisexual (perfect), protandrous, zygomorphic, epigynous, pedicellate, resupinate, ornithophilous, large. Calyx lobes triangular, spreading, 4–9×1.5–3 mm, 2/3 as long as the hypanthium to half again as long, the margin entire, the apex obtuse. Corolla unilabiate, various shades of red, 45–68 mm long; tube arcuate, 20–40 mm long, 5.5–7.5 mm tall at middle, 3.5–6 mm tall at mouth, 3.4–6.7 times longer than height at middle; dorsal lobes 23–33×1.5–2.5 mm, 2/3 as long as the tube to half again as long, the apex acuminate; ventral lip oblong, 15–30×6–8 mm. Stamens 5, antisepalous, connate distally for most of their length; Staminal column strongly exserted, emerging well above the lobes; filament tube 45–61 mm long, 3.2–4.3 times longer than dorsal anthers, glabrous; anther tube 3–4 mm diam. pubescent toward base; dorsal anthers 12–16 mm long; ventral anthers 8–12 mm long, with tufts of white trichomes 1.2–2.5 mm long at apex. Pollen grains 41–44 μm polar diam. 27–30 μm equatorial diam. prolate, tricolporate, the exine shallowly and minutely reticulate (Selling, 1947). Ovary inferior, 2-loculed, adnate to the hypanthium, flat at apex; placentae axile; ovules numerous; style 1, slender, terete (cylindrical), with a ring of stiff white hairs near the apex; stigma 2-lobed, the lobes appressed and non–receptive as the style grows through the anther tube, pushing out pollen, after which the stigmas spread and become receptive.

Fruit: Capsules subglobose or hemispheric; 7–11 mm long; 7–14 mm wide; 5–8 mm thick; the pores few and basal. Seeds 1.3×0.7 mm.

Ploidy: 2n = 28

Habitat: In areas are dominated by various lowland wet shrubland; montane wet shrubland; and lowland wet forest communities.

Elevation Range: Growing at 990–1570 m on the central plateau (Kaua‘i), particularly in and around the Alaka‘i Swamp; and at 730–1200 m in the Wahiawa drainage of the southern portion of the island.