Kanaloa kahoolawensis

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Kanaloa kahoolawensis

Critically endangered, possibly extinct in the wild  (IUCN 3.1
)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Clade: Mimosoid clade
Genus: Kanaloa
Lorence & K.R.Wood[1]
Species:
K. kahoolawensis
Binomial name
Kanaloa kahoolawensis
Lorence & K.R.Wood

Kanaloa kahoolawensis, the Ka palupalu o Kanaloa or kohe malama malama o kanaloa,

monotypic
genus with the single species Kanaloa kahoolawensis.

History

Kanaloa was discovered in 1992 by the botanists Ken Wood and Steve Perlman of the

Kahoʻolawe, a small island that was formerly used as a bombing range. Kahoʻolawe was a penal colony for the Hawaiian monarchy from 1826 to 1853, after which it was leased for ranching.[3] Dry weather and ranching have devastated the island's vegetation. Only two wild plants of Kanaloa kahoolawensis have been observed growing on the island.[3] The genus and species were formally named by Lorence and Wood in 1994.[4] The genus name honors the Hawaiian deity Kanaloa, who according to legend used the island to rest and regain his energies.[3] Scholars and native Hawaiian activists both agree that Kanaloa is from the original name "Kohemalamalama O Kanaloa".,[5] which translates as the place or womb for the resuscitation of Kanaloa.[3] According to Lorence & Wood (1994), Kanaloa means, "secure, firm, immovable, established, unconquerable...Such attributes are certainly essential for this plant to have survived in spite of the severe degradation of the island".[3] The specific epithet kahoolawensis is from the island Kahoʻolawe where the first species was discovered.[4]

Habitat and range

Only two plants have ever been found in the wild.

extinct, species - possibly an ancestor of K. kahoolawensis -, judging from the biogeography of Hawaiian land plants.[8][9][10]

Description

Kanaloa kahoolawensis is an unarmed shrub reaching 0.75–1 m in height. Branches are dense, decumbent and measure 0.75-1.5 m long. New growth is densely brown hirtellous-villosulous with straight and curly, white and brown simple trichomes 0.1-0.3 mm long. Stipules free, paired, ovate, villosulous, 1.5–2 mm x 1.2-1.5 mm. Leaves alternate, bipinnately compound with one pair of pinnae, each pinna bears 3 leaflets, a terminal pair and a single proximal leaflet on the abaxial side, leaflets nearly sessile, pulvinus <1 mm, ovate to elliptic, asymmetrical, 2.7-4.2 cm x 1.4-3.2 cm, venation reticulate, leaflet margin entire. Tendrils absent. The inflorescence is a globose capitulum, 7.0-8.5 mm in diameter, peduncle 2.7-4.5 cm, flowers white, 20-54 per head, subtended by persistent peltate bracts, mostly unisexual, male, a few with very reduced sterile stigmas <0.5 mm, hermaphroditic flowers not seen. Sepals pubescent, connate, calyx obconic, 2-2.5 mm, 5 lobed. Petals 5, free, 2.0–3 mm, oblanceolate, inflexed, pubescent, extremely hirtellous apically, midvein conspicuous. Stamens 10, distinct, anthers dorsifixed 0.6-1.0 mm, filaments 2-4.5 mm. Pollen in monads, tricolporate. Fruits stipitate, stipe 4–5 mm long, as many as 4 per capitulum, inertly dehiscent along both margins, obovate or subcircular, 2.4-3.2 x 2-2.3 cm. Each fruit contains a single seed[3]

Phylogeny

Leucaena group
Phylogenetic tree of Leucaena group[11]

Based on molecular phylogenetic studies, Kanaloa is closely related to Schleinitzia and Desmanthus.[11] Shared features include: lack of spines or prickles, presence of sessile petiolar glands, petals free to the base, and inflorescence a capitulum. Kanaloa differs from Schleinitzia in lacking glands at the apex of the anthers and having simple rather than compound pollen grains. Fruits are dehiscent along the sutures in Kanaloa; in Schleinitzia the sutural ribs separate from the valves forming a craspedium similar to that in Mimosa. Kanaloa is most closely related to Desmanthus, sharing peltate floral bracts and inertly dehiscent fruits. Kanaloa differs from Desmanthus in having 3 leaflets per pinna and cordiform seeds.[3]

Conservation

Other than preserving the wild plants, efforts have been put into establishing ex-situ stocks (in a nursery or arboretum), and increasing plant populations with a minimum of 25 individuals.[4] Fences have been built to protect the single wild plant from grazing and trampling by introduced mammals. The plants are inspected regularly for insect damage and disease.[4] Another plant that was grown from seed is currently kept in the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s McBryde Garden on Kauaʻi, Hawaii.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Genus: Kanaloa Lorence & K. R. Wood". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 1999-03-05. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
  2. ^ USFWS. Kanaloa kahoolawensis Species Profile
  3. ^
    JSTOR 3391582
    .
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Kanaloa kahoolawensis". National Tropical Botanical Garden. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  5. JSTOR 3660711
    .
  6. ^ TenBruggencate, Jan (2007-08-07). "Oahu sinkholes yield extinct birds". Honolulu Advertiser.
  7. ^ Ernst, Cheryl (January 2002). "Discovering Kauaʻi's Real 'Lost World'". Mālamalama. 27 (1). University of Hawaii.
  8. ^ "Kanaloa" (PDF). State of Hawaiʻi. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  9. ^ Athens, J. S.; Ward, J. V. & Wickler, S. (1992) Late Holocene lowland vegetation on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 14: 9–34.
  10. ^ James, Helen F. & Burney, David A. (1997): The diet and ecology of Hawaii's extinct flightless waterfowl: evidence from coprolites. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 62(2): 279–297. HTML abstract
  11. ^ a b Hughes, C.E.; Bailey, C.D.; Krosnick, S.; Luckow, M.A. (2003). "Relationships Among Genera of the Informal Dichrostachys and Leucaena Groups (Mimosoideae) Inferred from Nuclear Ribosomal ITS Sequences" (PDF). In B.B. Klitgaard; A. Bruneau (eds.). Advances in Legume Systematics. Vol. Part 10, Higher Level Systematics. Kew Publishing. pp. 221–238. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
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