Lobelia monostachya

• Conservation Status: Endangered
• Distribution: O’ahu (Southern Ko’olau mountains)
• Date photographed: 10/27/2010
• Ease of viewing: Difficult
• *Identification: Form– Stems woody, prostrate, 1.5-2.5 dm long Leaves– linear; blades 7-15 cm long by 0.4-0.7 cm wide; margins entire to minute callose-denticulate, flat or revolute; sessile or subsessile. Flower– hypanthium obconical; calyx lobes subulate to linear, 1-2.5 mm long; corolla magenta, curved, 15-18 mm long.
• My notes: Lobelia monostachya has a pretty cool story. Aside from the type specimen found in the early 1800’s, the only other records of this species were in the 1920’s in Manoa valley. It was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 1994. To be shown this population of L. monostachya by the gentleman who rediscovered the species, well that is just icing on the cake.
• Links: Lobelia monostachya SGCN (pdf), Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, US Fish & Wildlife, UH Botany, Native Hawaiian Plants- Lobelia, Lobelia monostachya 5-year review (pdf)

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i