Clermontia faurei

• Hawaiian Name: Haha’aiakamanu
• Conservation Status: Apparently Secure
• Distribution: Kaua’i, O’ahu (2 records in 1950 & 1956)
• Date photographed: 9/22/2010
• Ease of viewing: Easy
• *Identification: Form– Terrestrial or epiphytic shrub or tree 2-7 m tall. Leaves– oblong to elliptic; blades 5-17 cm long by 1.5-7 cm wide; margins callose-crenulate; petioles 1.5-8 cm long. Flower– hypanthium hemispherical to obconical, 9-15 mm long; calyx lobes deltate to shallowly triangular, 2-4 mm long; corolla greenish or purplish externally, cream within, curved, 60-70 mm long.
• Phylogenetic comments: This is the only species of Clermontia found on Kaua’i.
• My notes: Even though this is the only type found on the island, it is a major component of the wet forest plant community. Clermontia faurei is one of the most common plants in the understory along sections of the Pihea trail. Where I saw C. faurei, it was difficult to tell where one sprawling shrub stopped and another began.
• Links: Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, UH Botany, Native Hawaiian Plants- Clermontia
• Additional Pics:

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i