#species

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Visiting Death Valley in 2021 was a disappointment compared to 2020, but there were some die-hard plants still flowering despite the dryness of the year. Phacelia crenulata was one of the few we saw, thriving at the edge of roads where the asphalt sheds water and can help keep it from evaporating as quickly.

Phacelia, AKA scorpionweeds for the curled inflorescences they grow, is native to North and South America though Phacelia tanacetifolia is making headway as an introduced species in Europe.

The scorpion-tail cymes of P. crenulata’s purple flowers mature into capsules full of orange-brown seeds which will hang out in the soil for as long as half a decade waiting for decent conditions to germinate and grow for a year – an endurance which may be necessary in the arid climates to which they are native. I took some seed heads home to photograph and grow, but so far I haven’t gotten them as large as they were growing even in that dry year!

Argemone glauca, or Pua kala, is one of the prickly poppies (family Papaveraceae) and is endemic the Hawaiian islands where it exists at many altitudes. A. glauca (named for the glaucous = gray green/blue leaves) produces a classic white flower with yellow center and has spiny leaves which along with toxic alkaloids deter herbivores from grazing. While not possessing the opioids for which poppies may be best known, the alkaloids Pua kala possesses made it useful to native Hawaiians for treating various medical conditions such as ulcers, toothaches, and warts.

Like its mainland counterparts, A. glauca prefers fairly dry habitats, doing well in places with little rainfall. Though native to only north and south America, various species of Argemone have been introduced throughout the world, including different species though within the native range of the genus. Argemone mexicana is a fairly close relative of A. glauca and has been introduced to the Hawaiian islands, benefiting from adaptation to similar environments.

Eulophia callichroma is an interesting terrestrial orchid from several African countries including Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Eulophia is one of my favorite orchid genera as many of its species break the expected norm that orchids require warm, humid, tropical sorts of places. While not the most extreme species in the genus (Eulophia petersii is noted as being the ‘desert orchid’ after all), it still does an impressive job thriving in rocky landscapes and forests in the slightly wetter end of the mediterranean climate range with a very harshly pronounced dry season. Swollen stems known as pseudobulbs store water and nutrients and will slowly shrivel through the dry season to be replenished when rain again falls. Like many other Eulophia, it requires a dry winter to bloom, and this species is noted as often blooming following a period of fire. In such dry climates it is quite natural for many native species to be adapted to and ultimately benefit from occasional fires. Unfortunately the introduction of non-native species and human intervention in the progress of wildfires often results in more severe fires which threaten not only human establishment but also surpass what fire-adapted species are able to tolerate.

Native to South America, Sanchezia parvibracteata has become naturalized throughout the world. I came across what is essentially a hedge of this plant growing in the understory forest of a suburban community on Oahu. Fond of cooler, wetter locations, it was extremely happy there and is known to readily escape cultivation. This is one of the least dramatic plants I have photographed in UVIVF but the stigmas, anther, bracts, and stems at least provide a little glow and visual interest.

Ageratum houstonianum is an annual member of the sunflower family (Asteraceae)prized in ornamental gardens for its blue fluffy flowers. Originating in Mexico and Central America it has made its way throughout the world, quickly becoming naturalized and invasive. I found this subject growing wild on a hilly roadside on Oahu right next to the previously posted Medinilla magnifica, and made a collection to photograph that night. One notable trait of this plant is that all parts contain toxic alkaloids which make it hazardous when consumed for humans, but especially for grazing animals apt to eat larger quantities of it.

Medinilla magnifica is a plant native to the Philippines which has spread throughout the tropics and has long been cultivated as an ornamental ‘exotic’ plant. It comes from the family Melastomataceae with which I have little familiarity to the point that from a list of 175 genera I only definitely recognized one (Tibouchina)!

I came across this plant growing in the wild on my first day arriving on Oahu while waiting for my check-in time at the hotel to arrive and collected it and several others in the hopes that at least one would turn out to be a native. It turns out that as with a lot of the flora especially around urban areas, this is an introduced species becoming increasingly naturalized and invasive with time. The two species of Medinilla in Hawaii are problematic because they continue to be sold by oblivious or unscrupulous nurseries and stores, and they produce thousands of tiny seeds which are spread by birds. The plant can grow as a terrestrial or an epiphyte and does well in low light conditions meaning it can displace native plants that would normally grow under the canopy or in some cases right in the crown of rare palm trees.

There’s no doubt that it is a striking plant with great aesthetic value, but after seeing so many native plants at Hui Ku Maoli Ola, Lyon Arboretum, Koko Crater, as well as while hiking, I know there are no shortage of stunning Hawaiian natives and people working hard to get them into the hands of those who are seeking botanical beauty!

This is the last of my native flora photos from last year’s  Hawaii assignment. Fittingly this is from the final shoot and perhaps strangely my favorite of all. This is Nototrichium sandwicense, an endemic species in the Amaranthfamily known in the indigenous language as Kului. The flowers’ white-light color is rather tame, but they remain attractive for the fluffy character and produce a pleasing cyan to green tone when exposed to my ultraviolet light. The leaves may be my absolute favorite thing about this plant though. Especially when grown in bright and dry conditions, the leaves become heavily pubescent, tiny hairs creating a translucent silvery sheen overlaying the green leaf surface. They prefer to grown in dry conditions and are naturally present on many of the islands, growing in various well-drained soils at low to moderate altitudes. If I could choose just one of the plants I photographed to grow at home in California, it would be this species!

For some bonus fun, check out the ant in the final picture. She and her associates were wandering all over the flowers, creating quite a lot of frustration for me. In the end  there was one frame where one ant was both somewhat in focus and stationary enough to get a good look at how the body fluoresces under 365nm UV.

This is my last native Hawaiian flower to share. I’ll be taking a short break from posting UVIVF images, but I’ll return with some invasive species I photographed the first night there and probably some infrared images down the line as well!

Thanks to Hana Hou! magazine (in particular Matt Mallams!) for bringing me in on this assignment and both the Lyon Arboretum and Hui Ku Maoli Ola for all the help in providing subjects and sparing the time to talk about things. I hope I’ll have another opportunity in the future to come visit!

Dianella sandwicensis, known as Uki in native Hawaiian, is monocot member of the Asphodelaceaefamily which includes some well-known succulent genera such as HaworthiaandAloe.The actinomorphic flowers with anatomy in triplicate causes it to readily resemble flowers of the true lilies, leading to a common name of flax lilies for Dianellaplants in general.

The species is endemic to Hawaii and has a natural range spanning many of the islands where it can grow in many of their environments, whether dry or wet, or low to high altitude. It can flower at any time of year and produces vividly colored purple-blue fruit which were prized for incorporation into seed lei and used for dye. The leaves were further used, being braided into cord or used to thatch houses. In the modern day the plant is still used as a source of natural dye and for ornamental planting.

Thanks to the Lyon Arboretum for making this plant available to me for my assignment for Hana Hou!

Plectranthus parviflorus, known by Alaala wai nui in Hawaiian, is a plant native to the Hawaiian islands as well as other places throughout the Oceania region. This plant from the mint family is one of the easiest grown natives in Hawaii and once established can actually become somewhat weedy, readily growing in dry conditions, even in sidewalk cracks and the crotches of trees making it semi-epiphytic. The leaves, stem, buds, and ultimately calyx are all fuzzy which together with the ease of growing and willingness to flower make it popular as an ornamental native species.

Scaevola taccada which goes by quite a few names such as beach cabbage and called naupaka in Hawaii. It shares an order with sunflowers, but is in its own family which is mostly found in Australia barring its genus, Scaevola,which is found in the tropics. It has semi-succulent leaves and grows close to the sea where its fruit is able to float and spread via water (hydrochorous habit). The plant has and has had varied uses throughout time: It has been eaten, used as leis, used to produce dyes, and even used in lieu of saliva to prevent fiving masks from fogging.

While on Oahu, this was one of few native plants I saw outside of the nursery, arboretum, or preserves as it is extensively used in urban landscaping, both commercial and residential. I spied this plant planted along a coastal road as well as right in downtown Honolulu adjacent to a sea of concrete and asphalt.

Vitex rotundifolia, the beach vitex, is one of Hawaii’s native plants which grows at seashores throughout the pacific. Though the leaves look little like those of most of the mint family (Lamiaceae)this plant nonetheless belongs to that family (its flowers do look lamiaceous!) This is one of the few native species I observed in the wild while visiting Oahu on commissioned work for Hana Hou! magazine.

Considering its range, it is not surprising that this would be one of the most likely candidates to be stumbled upon in the wild, and in an inversion to the normal scheme, this plant is actually invasive in other parts of the world!

Within the U.S., beach vitex has become naturalized and invasive in the east, with control protocols very similar to the invasive Anredera cordifolia (Madeira Vine) in parts of Australia. It has some remarkable and deleterious characteristics such as promoting hydrophibicity in dunes which impacts other plants’ ability to grow and producing methyl chloride which is a chemical implicated in causing damage to the ozone layer.

Viola chamissoniana is a member of the violet family known as ‘olopu in and endemic to Hawaii where it is found on several of the islands in the chain. The subspecies native to Oahu is a federally-listed endangered species, largely as a result of the grazing of introduced feral goats and pigs which pose a threat to many other Hawaiian endemics. Introduced herbivores are far from the only threat as introduced plants such as Ageratina adenophora pose troublesome competition from a plant I’ve also seen growing wild and introduced here in California. While human development is one of the leading causes of species endangerment and habitat loss, it is clear that secondary effects, even centuries down the line, continue to ravage natural ecosystems.

A less dour fact about Violas is that they usually have two types of flowers borne in different times of year. The flowers we appreciate are known as chasmogamous – showy things designed to attract the attention of would-be pollinators and incidentally us as well. This promotes cross-pollination and in Violaoften results in a seed pod which explodes, propelling diversified seeds to colonize surrounding areas. There are also sneaky flowers which are almost never seen, hunkering close to the base of the plant or even underground. These flowers are cleistogamous and are self-pollinating. The fruit containing these seeds instead dumps them close to the parent plant as the offspring are more likely to have a similar genetic makeup which allows them to thrive in the same conditions.

Thanks to Hui Ku Maoli Ola for lending me this plant as a subject along with the others!

Schiedea globosa is another member of the pinks family, endemic to Hawaii, and though less imperiled than its cousin (previously posted Schiedea adamantis), it still experiences a threatened existence in the wild. It is native to many of the islands where it inhabits steep north-facing cliffs and rocky slopes, often in coastal habitats where it requires little water, contrary to the general perception of the environments of Hawaii. The globular flower clusters are not visually striking but offer a fairly unique scent, reminiscent of sweet butter and caramel.

This plant was part of a series enabled by Hana Hou! who brought me to Oahu for this project and Hui Ku Maoli Ola native nursery which generously lent me this among other plants to photograph.

Gossypium tomentosum, Ma’o, or Hawaiian cotton, is an another endemic member of the mallow family (Malvaceae). It is grown as a small shrub, a groundcover, and is enjoyed for its silky flowers and silvery leaves. Sadly, like many of the other Hawaiian plants I’ve been sharing, it is endangered and has been extirpated from at least one of the Hawaiian islands largely as a result of continued coastal development.

Besides the loss of beauty, variety, and ecological diversity, the extinction of a species always has potential to make lost traits which would have perhaps more conventional value. This cotton illustrates this as even while its population continues to decline, its genes persist in commercial cotton crops after being bred with them to confer enhanced insect and pathogen resistance. While for some the abstract consequences of extinction have no impact, there remain more concrete losses which should leave any person concerned.

Achyranthes splendens (Ahinahina in Hawaiian) is an endangered Hawaiian endemic plant in the same family as amaranth. This species occurs only on the Hawaiian islands, growing at low to moderate altitudes typically along western and southern coasts in relatively dry habitats. While the inflorescence I had to photograph is missing flowers (they fall off pretty rapidly and easily) the flowers when blooming are light green and barely distinct from the rest of the inflorescence without quite close inspection. They are not as much appreciated for the flowers as they are for the beautiful tomentose foliage which presents a shifting metallic sheen overlaying the green leaf tissue. Sadly, like many Hawaiian plants, this easily-grown species is still threatened by habitat loss, and with its decreasing population may follow in the steps of its relative Achyranthes atollensis which was made extinct through civilian and military development in 1964.

Capparis sandwichiana, the Hawaiian Caper, or maiapilo, is a sprawling, low-growing shrub which inhabits only the Hawaiian islands in coastal and near-coastal ranges. It shares its genus with Capparis spinosa which is commonly used in Mediterranean cooking and shares some traits such as a preference for little water which might be surprising when hearing it is endemic to these tropical islands. The white flowers are fragrant and quite large, serving as nectar source for Manduca blackburni and a forage source for larval Plutella capparidis moths,both of which are also endemic Hawaiian species. The plant is threatened in the wild, which should come as no surprise knowing it’s from the coastal regions and after the information I posted about all the other Hawaiian flora so far.

Curiously, while many plants are given scientific names after people (often European naturalists), others’ names give a description of the plant or its origin. Capparis sandwichiana straddles these two potentials, being named for the location (“The Sandwich Islands”), which were in turn named that by James Cook, a British explorer. I am not the most passionate about plant naming conventions being actually useful, but the surfeit of plants with variations of “sandwich” as epithets is sort of absurd and stupid. While recognizing the value of the taxonomic system to categorize and make distinct species, I think it would be both practical and honorable to integrate native names instead of using monotonous species names such as “sandwichensis” or individuals’ names, for example this plant could be Capparis maiapilo instead. The first flower I posted in this series is actually a good example of it with a taxonomic name of Hibiscus kokio while the Hawaiian name is Kokiʻo.

Anyway, enough of that! I hope you enjoy this plant as much as I did.
Many thanks to Tim K from the Lyon Aboretum for giving me some cuttings from his personal garden in order to document this species.