Suberect or decumbent or often mat-forming soft shrub with alternate leaves. Diagnostic features of the species include consistently alternate, very narrow leaves, white flowers, and corymbiform clusters of heads. Flowering may occur at any time but apparently peaks in the summer.
This species is found on Moloka'i, Lana'i, Maui, and Hawai'i, primarily on fog-swept, barren, often very recent lava flows (subsp. scabra) or in rain forest habitats [especially subsp. leiophylla (A. Gray) G. Carr], at elevations ranging from 75-2,500 m elevation. The sites occupied by the species receive about 60-640 cm of annual precipitation.
Last Modification: March 13, 2011
Each "thumbnail" image below is linked to a larger photograph.
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Large mat-forming plant colonizing cinder-blasted area, subsp. scabra. (photo 1984, Devastation Trail, Hawai'i) |
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Population on cinder, subsp. scabra. (photo 1982, Devastation Trail, Hawai'i) |
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Portion of a small flowering individual, subsp. scabra. (photo 1982, Devastation Trail, Hawai'i) |
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Flowering plants of subsp. scabra established on pahoehoe lava of 1936 flow near Pu'u Huluhulu, Hawai'i. |
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Flowering heads of subsp. scabra grown in greenhouse at Davis, CA. |
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Subsp. leiophylla growing with Dicranopteris on Lana'i Hale. |
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A nearly flat-topped cluster of flowering heads, subsp. leiophylla (photo 1978, near Pu'u Nianiau, E. Maui) |