Cyanea truncata

• Conservation Status: Endangered
• Distribution: O’ahu (Windward Ko’olau gulches)
• Date photographed: 4/1/2011
• Ease of viewing: Difficult
• *Identification: Form– Shrubs 0.3-2 m tall; stems unbranched or sparingly branched from base; muricate. Leaves– obovate, blades 22-60 cm long, 10-26 cm wide; margins callose-denticulate; pubescent and sparsely muricate; petioles 8-25 cm long. Flower– hypanthium obconical, 5-6 mm long; calyx lobes narrowly oblong, 4-10 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, pubescent, apex obtuse; corolla white, striped or suffused with magenta, 32-42 mm long, 5-9 mm wide, pubescent.
• Phylogenetic comments: 2022 update — Cyanea truncata appears to originate from one of several hybridization events between the rollandia clade and the grimesiana clade on O’ahu.
• Links: Cyanea truncata SGCN (pdf), Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, UH Botany, Native Hawaiian Plants- Cyanea, US Fish and Wildlife Cyanea truncata 5-year review (pdf), PEP- Cyanea truncata

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i