Cyanea hardyi -cultivated

• Hawaiian Name: Haha
• Conservation Status: Apparently secure
• Distribution: Kaua’i
• Date photographed: 5/22/2013
• Ease of viewing: Cultivation -Limahuli Gardens
• *Identification: Form– Branched shrub or tree, 1-7 m tall Leaves– elliptic to oblanceolate, blades 18-28 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, base attenuate into a winged petiole 2.5-8 cm long. Flower– calyx lobes dentiform, 0.5-1 mm long; corolla purplish to blackish purple, 20-26 mm long, 23 mm wide.
• Phylogenetic comments: 2022 update — Cyanea hardyi is part of the coriacea clade of Cyanea with mostly a Kaua’i radiation. This clade of possible hybrid origin between the pyrularia  clade and angustifolia clade has a fairly large diversification of species on Kaua’i.
• My notes: Limahuli Gardens is such a jewel on the north coast of Kaua’i; I really have to do a proper post on it one of these days. They have a nice representation of Hawaiian lobeliads, with Cyanea hardyi being one of the more prominent ones.
• Links: Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, UH Botany, Native Hawaiian Plants- Cyanea

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i