Cyanea arborea
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Cyanea arborea , black and white photo from around 1913 |
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Cyanea arborea (English common name : "Tree Cyanea") is an extinct Hawaiian plant species from the subfamily of the Lobelia family (Lobelioideae) withinthe Bellflower family (Campanulaceae). It was endemic to Maui .
description
Cyanea arborea was a small tree 4 to 8 m tall. The palm-like crown of leaves at the top of the trunk was characteristic. The trunk had a diameter of 10 cm. The stalkless, lanceolate leaves were 65 to 90 cm long, 7 to 12.5 cm wide and sat in tufts at the end of the branch. The leaf margin was slightly toothed, but almost entire or wavy towards the leaf base. The underside of the leaf was smooth, papery and leathery and downy-haired or bald on the midrib.
The thin, stiff inflorescence axis was 15 to 30 cm long and almost bare above. The pendulous inflorescence was composed of 15 to 25 cream-purple single flowers that were 5 cm long and 5 mm wide. The flower stalks were 3.8 mm, the bracts 2 to 4 mm and the prophylls 1 mm long. The calyx was hemispherical, bald and serrated with short teeth. The flower tube was 6 mm long. The smooth, rather thin corolla was moderately arched, semi-upright with a deep dorsal gap and converging lobes. The smooth stamens and carpels were fused into a gynostegium ( stamp column ). The slightly fluted berries were spherical and 10 to 12 mm in diameter. The flowering time was in early spring.
Occurrence
Cyanea arborea was endemic at altitudes between 1,520 and 1,650 m in the dense semi-arid forests near Ulupalakua on the westward side of Haleakalā on Maui .
status
In the early 19th century, Cyanea arborea was a common tree in the species-rich forests at Haleakalā crater. In 1913, the botanist Joseph Francis Rock visited the region near Ulupalakua and discovered that the endemic forests had largely been replaced by pastures and eucalyptus trees. In a small ravine inaccessible to cattle, Rock discovered the last specimen of Cyanea arborea . On a later expedition in 1928, George Campbell Munro was able to prove the tree for the last time.
literature
- Warren L. Wagner, Derral R. Herbst, SH Sohmer: Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i . University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. ISBN 0824821661
- Walton Beacham: World Wildlife Fund Guide to Extinct Species of Modern Times . 1997, ISBN 0933833407 .
- Joseph Francis Rock: The indigenous trees of the Hawaiian Islands . 1913 ( online )
Web links
- Cyanea arborea in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2007. Posted by: Bruegmann, MM & Caraway, V., 2003. Accessed on March 27 of 2008.
- Entry at Natureserve