Lobelioids Haha How and when did Lobelioids come

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 • 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, popolo, pua kala, 'aku • Much more diversified and • • 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 nui, haha'aiakamanu, Diversification in flowers Sepals unusually long, some as long as the petals Main pollinator honeycreeper

Lobelia ohawai or • Only genus occurring else where in the world • Typically wet places • • 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 100 s 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 • • • 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. 2 vols. Honolulu: U of Hawaii Press. 1990 Millen, Priscilla. U of Hawaii Distance Education Web Page. <http: //emedia. leeward. hawaii. edu/millen/bot 130/> New York Botanical Garden. Vascular Plant Type Catalog. <http: //www. nybg. org/bsci/hcol/vasc/campanulaceae. html>