Lobelioids
Haha
• How and when did Lobelioids come to
arrive in Hawai’i?
• In what ways have they adapted to
Hawaiian habitats?
• How have each of the endemic species
adapted?
• What are the causes of some species
disappearing?
How Lobelioids reached the
Hawaiian archipelago
•Indo-pacific region
•tropical climate
•growing conditions
•Andes: fleshly fruited lobelia
•Centropogon, Burmeistera
•Seeds carried by muddy
birds
•4,000 mile trip
•roughly 5 million year ago
Makai to mauka
• Deposited along coast the islands
• Adapted inland to less harsh climate
– Makai to mauka : coast to forest
Adaptations
• Arborescence
• Gigantism
• Protection
• Dispersal
• Pollination
Most all of these adaptations can be attributed to Hawaii’s mild
climate which stimulates year round growth
Arborescence
“becoming a tree”
• Weedy forms okay as
colonist
• Evolve to be more treelike to
match densely vegetated
areas
• Woody forms can compete
best for light
• Rosetta/whorl of leaves
• Gigantism
– Seeds, leaves
(rosette), height
• Dispersal
– Termatolobia
– “salt shaker”
Protection
– spikes/teeth on some juvenile
plants of cyanea and
rollandia
– Fall off when adulthood
reached
– some “permanently juvenile”
• Cyanea marksii
– Land snails and some insects
• Pollination
– Hawk moth
– Honeycreepers
• Clermontia excessive flower
types
Lobelioids
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Delissea
Cyanea
Rollandia
Clermontia
Lobelia
Trematolobelia
Brighamia
Delissea
• Best represents
features of immigrants
– Large seeds
– Numerous flowered
inflorescent
• Distinguished by
– Large wrinkled
seeds
– Pimple like
projection on
flower
• Habitat: dry forest
• Site of original
colonization
Cyanea
haha, haha nui, haha lua, 'aku'aku,
popolo, pua kala, 'aku
• Much more diversified and
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common than delissea
Habitat : wet shade forests
Spikes/spines on juvenile
plants
Absent when adulthood
reached
Cyanea marksii never “grows
up”
Rollandia
• Stamens are adherent to collola
• Rosetta treelike species has
adapted to many varied habitats
• Lower wet to upper dry areas
– R. lanceolata : wide hairy
leaves
• Deep shady gulches
– R. pinnatifida : juvenile plant
has toothed leaves; adult
losses teeth
• Windy wet ridges
– R. st johnii : short stem,
leaves curled with protective
shiny surface
Clermontia
'oha, 'oha wai, 'oha wai nui, haha, haha'aiakamanu,
Diversification in flowers
Sepals unusually long, some as long as the petals
Main pollinator honeycreeper
Lobelia
oha ohawai
or
• Only genus occurring
else where in the world
• Typically wet places
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world wide
Large rosettes on top of
huge stalks
Plant dies after fruiting
Trematolobelia
koli’i
• One species, with many varieties
• Specializes in seed dispersal
• Lives in the wettest places
Brighamia
puaala, aluli, ohahah
• Grows on the steep
cliffs of Kavai, Molokai
(& formerly Niihau)
Characteristically a
single rosette of
leaves on top of a
thick succulent stem
What are some causes of
disappearance?
• Loss of dispersibility
• Loss of competitiveness
– Invasive species
• Human activity
– Loss of habitat
– Introduction of livestock
• Loss of pollinators
– Mamo and I’iwi
– Fewer Hawk moths
• Unknown reasons
• 95% of native Hawaiian plants occur
nowhere else in the world
• Hawaii has 100s of species of plants and
animals on the endangered species list
• More plants and animal species have
disappeared from the Hawaiian islands
than all of North America
• Lobelioids arrived in the
Hawaiian archipelago millions
of years ago and have since
has uniquely adapted
drastically in
– Habitat
– Growth form
– Pollination requirements
• Although many lobelioid
species have become
obsolete many are still
thriving and surviving!
Aloha
bibliography
• Carquest, Sherwin. Hawaii: A Natural History. Honolulu: SB
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printers,inc.1980
Carr, Dr. Gerald. U of Hawaii Botany Department.
<http://www.botany.hawaii.edu>
Fosberg, Raymond F., and Dieter Mueller-Dombois. Vegitation of
the Tropical Pacific Islands. New York: Springer-Verlag.1998
Herbst, Sohmer, and Warren L. Wagner. Manual of the
Flowering Plants of Hawaii.2vols. Honolulu: U of Hawaii
Press.1990
Millen, Priscilla. U of Hawaii Distance Education Web Page.
<http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/millen/bot130/>
New York Botanical Garden. Vascular Plant Type Catalog.
<http://www.nybg.org/bsci/hcol/vasc/campanulaceae.html>