Learning Objective 26

Hawaiian Lobelioids


Lobelioids are relatively small plants elsewhere in the world, as the picture shows. But in the Hawaiian Islands they become tree-like, with woody stems and whorls of leaves at the top. In the photo at the left below, a shrub-sized Cyanea grows at high elevation. In the photo at the right, a haha lua, Cyanea leptostegia, one of the tallest of the lobelias, grows to tree height in a dry forest.

Lobelioids were early winners in the Hawaiian evolution lottery. Indications of this are the thirteen endemic species in the genus Lobelia and the fifty-two endemic species in the genus Cyanea. The plant is an excellent example of adaptive radiation. It is thought only one or two ancestral immigrant species, dispersed in mud embedded on birds, gave rise to the Hawaiian population.

Lobelia kauaensis
Lobelia niihauensis
Photos by Dave Boynton


Lobelia hypoleuca Photo by Edwin Petteys
Brighamia insignis,an endangered lobelia
Photo by Priscilla Millen


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