Clermontia hanaulaensis, found in the remote forests of West Maui, has officially been recognized as a new Hawaiian species. Photo courtesy DLNR
A unique plant first seen in the high forests of West Maui in 2020 has now been officially recognized as a new Hawaiian species, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources announced Thursday.
The plant, now named Clermontia hanaulaensis, was found during routine surveys by botanist Hank Oppenheimer of the Plant Extinction Prevention Program, a partnership with DLNR and the University of Hawai’i.
“I decided to just turn a different way and look over a ridge I hadn’t explored before and there they were,” Oppenheimer said in a news release Thursday. “They looked very different from other Clermontia.”
The species is only found in Hawaii and is likely unique only to the mountains of West Maui, according to DLNR.
Botanists across the state studied the plant’s flower and leaf structure, comparing it to herbarium specimens and photos to attempt to confirm that it is a previously undiscovered species. The botanists also ruled out the possibility of the plant being a hybrid of other Clermontia species.
Because it exists only as a small population with a limited range, it’s already being proposed for critically endangered status.
The patch of this rare plant is currently the only known population, numbering just under 80 adults and 20 seedlings spread out in an area about the size of 10 football fields. Although they are not growing on protected state lands, the private landowner has been a longtime conservation partner, the DLNR said.
Clermontia is a genus of plants that evolved in Hawaii and is found nowhere else in the world. They grow as small shrub-like trees on the six largest islands from about 600 to 6,000 feet in elevation, in cloud forests, wet and mesic forests, bogs and shrublands. Their long, paddle-shaped leaves grow atop branches that fork like a candelabra. Clermontia flowers are long, spreading tubes sheltered by their leaves above. This species’ flower is lavender and white.
Clermontia are usually pollinated by native forest birds, which are absent at this population’s elevation due to mosquito-spread avian malaria. Other threats include introduced plants, slugs, pigs and rats, which eats seeds and fruit. On Maui, axis deer pose additional threats. Severe weather can also pose a danger to the plants — a fire could wipe out the newly discovered species, or a hurricane could knock down larger trees that shade the mid-canopy Clermontia plants.
Hawaii has 423 plant species listed as threatened and endangered. Because there are only about 100 of this rare species in the wild, the Plant Extinction Prevention Program has collected seeds and will continue to monitor the population to ensure its survival, the DLNR said.
Clermontia hanaulaensis, found in the remote forests of West Maui, has officially been recognized as a new Hawaiian species. Photo courtesy DLNRToday's breaking news and more in your inbox
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