On today’s show we learn about the Clay’s Hibiscus, also known as Kokiʻo ʻula in Hawaiian, a critically endangered flowering plant native to Kauaʻi in the Hawaiian Islands.
Rough Transcript
Intro 00:05
Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.
On today’s show we consider the Clay’s Hibiscus.
Species Information 02:05
The Clay’s Hibiscus also known as Kokiʻo ʻula in Hawaiian, is a critically endangered flowering plant native to Kauaʻi in the Hawaiian Islands.
Clay’s Hibiscus is a large shrub, reaching heights of 10-15 feet, with a bushy growth form often spreading nearly as wide, as it is tall. The trunk is slender, usually less than 1 foot in diameter, with smooth, gray bark.
The deep green leaves are alternate, simple, and ovate in shape, with a smooth margin. Lots of botanical terms there, let’s work through them:
Alternate: refers to the arrangement of leaves on a stem. In an alternate arrangement, each leaf grows from the stem at a different point; maybe easiest to compare this to opposite leaf arrangement, where leaves arise in pairs at the same point on the stem. So instead of paired leaves, here the leaves alternate.
Next is Simple: A simple leaf has a single blade. Again maybe easiest to imagine in contrast, to like a clover which is a compound leaf, with blades divided into several leaflets.
Ovate simply means the leaf is egg shaped.
And then Smooth Margin: The margin is the edge of the leaf. Contrast a smooth margin to a serrated margin which is jagged, like a steak knife or a saw blade.
Okay so putting that all back together, an “alternate, simple, ovate leaf, with a smooth margin” means, leaves grow from the stem at different points than their neighboring leaves, they’re not divided into leaflets, they’re egg shaped and have a smooth edge. The Clay’s Hibiscus leaves are a medium to deep green color, growing roughly 2 inches long and 1 inch wide.
The Clay’s Hibiscus flower is remarkable, a little alien, wildly vibrant and so beautiful. Growing from stems near the ends of branches, the blooms unfurl with five long textured vibrant crimson petals arranged in a swirl, opening outward a kind of starburst, or propeller. In the center of the flower is a tall pale yellow staminal column, dense with stamen topped by bright yellow pollen. Atop the column is the style which segments into five deep red stigmas, the pollen receptors.
Clay’s Hibiscus is pollinated by birds, butterflies, moths, and bees attracted to these striking showy flowers. Flowers bloom year-round and are monoecious, meaning male parts (the yellow stamen) and female parts (the red stigma) are both present in a single flower.
The Clay’s Hibiscus prevents self-pollination through a timed growth mechanism called protandry. On a single flower the male reproductive parts mature and release pollen, before the female reproductive parts are receptive to pollen.
The Clay’s Hibiscus blooms year-round and each individual flower blooms only for a single day. Just to be clear about this though, an individual plant may have multiple flowers blooming both concurrently or in succession, its not like the whole shrub blooms at once and then is bare the rest of the year, instead it is continuously blooming but each individual flower blossoms and wilts in about 24 hours. This too is adaptation to help prevent self-pollination.
Once cross-pollination occurs, the fertilized flowers develop into five-valved capsules, each containing numerous small, black seeds. This means each fruit is divided into five distinct sections or segments, called valves. These valves are joined together at the seams, and when the fruit matures and dries, those seams split open, the botanical term for this is dehisce, so the dry fruit splits, dehisces, releasing the seeds for dispersal.
Seed dispersal in the Clay’s Hibiscus is believed to be primarily gravity-driven, with the seeds simply falling to the ground near the parent plant. However, secondary dispersal methods like wind, rainfall, and animals may also play a role.
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In the dream,
To dwindle on the precipice of vanishing, longing from the cliffslide, in the dream, singing yellow and crimson, a solitary tune windswept and scattered.
And then somehow a harmony, a mournful harmony but a bit of another’s song, and then somehow another and another and we are kind of a chorus now a small and desperate and tenuous chorus, but here on the slow mountain a new verse of seed and pollen.
The first line of a couplet to be rhymed in a now possible future.
In the dream.
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Clay’s Hibiscus is found in two locations in the mountainous eastern region of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, specifically the Nounou mountains and in the Moloaʻa Forest Reserve. This is a Hawaiian tropical dry forest ecoregion, a unique biome found only in the Hawaiian archipelago.
These mountains are a series of rugged volcanic peaks and ridges, with dry forests and shrublands. The terrain is steep and jagged, though green, pocks of basaltic outcrops poking through vegetation. The mountains of eastern Kauai were formed by a series of lava flows erupting roughly four and a half million years ago. And then in the millennia since, weathering and erosion have shaped the peaks, ridges, and valleys that we find today.
The Clay’s Hibiscus is native to dry forests, I stress that word dry as like in contrast to how we might picture the dense rainforests found in wetter parts of Hawaii. The dry forests of eastern Kauai have a more open canopy, with generally shorter and more sparsely distributed trees and vegetation.
This region sees warm temperatures year-round with distinct wet and dry seasons. Summer high temperatures average in the mid 80s °F and winter lows average in the mid 60s°F. Annual precipitation averages roughly 38 inches, with two-thirds of that rain falling from October-March.
I spent a fairly substantial amount of time practicing Hawaiian language pronunciation and yet, I beg the forgiveness of any Hawaiian speakers tuning into this episode.
The Clay’s Hibiscus shares its island home with:
Kōpiko, Jackson’s Chameleon, ʻAkekeʻe, Black-tailed Deer, Ulei, ʻApapane, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Puaiohi, Nēnē, Sleepy Morning, Uluhe, Hopbush, ʻAmakihi, Hawaiian Hoary Bat, ʻIʻiwi, Thatch Screwpine, Ilima, Kāulu, Koa, ʻAnianiau, Newell’s Shearwater, Hala pepe, Candlenut tree, Sea Lettuce, and many many more.
Historic reductions to the Clay’s Hibiscus population were the result of human-induced habitat loss and degradation. The conversion of forests to agricultural land, as well as the introduction of grazing animals, and non-native species significantly reduced the available habitat for the Clay’s Hibiscus.
Today, habitat loss remains a concern, although the establishment of protected areas is helping safeguard the remaining populations. But invasive plant species continue to pose a significant threat, non-native, human introduced species like Australian tree fern, Brazilian pepper tree, and Strawberry guava are outcompeting the Clay’s Hibiscus. And grazing by human introduced non-native mammals like pigs, goats, and rats is a major continuing threat.
And human induced climate change is a growing concern. Changes in temperature and rainfall patterns will alter the ecological balance of the dry forest ecosystem, and specifically affect wildfire frequency. Fire is particularly detrimental to low population species that are not fire adapted. In the case of the Clay Hibiscus this is compounded by their competition with faster regenerating non-native species. So for example after a wildfire we find invasive species now occupying habitat where the Clay’s Hibiscus once thrived.
The Clay’s Hibiscus is legally protected at both the federal and state level, by the US endangered species act and by the State of Hawaii. Its remaining population grows on protected land including a stand that is fenced in to protect it from non-native grazers. Extensive cutting, seed storage, offsite propagation and re-introduction programs are in place. Efforts by the National Tropical Botanical Garden have led to the successful cultivation of over 200 individuals in managed gardens across Hawaii and the storage of roughly 250 seeds. In 1995, scientists believed only 4 wild individuals remained. In a truly heroic effort in the years hence, roughly 80 individuals have been reintroduced to their native habitat.
Nevertheless the Clay’s Hibiscus has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1998 and their population is currently in decline. Our most recent counts estimate that less than 120 Clay’s Hibiscus remain in the wild.
Citations 20:27
Information for today’s show about the Clay’s Hibiscus was compiled from
Center for Plant Conservation – https://saveplants.org/plant-profile/?CPCNum=2257&mode=grid
Hawaiian Department of Land and Natural Resources. Hibiscus clayi. – https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/wildlife/files/2013/09/Fact-Sheet-Hibiscus-clayi.pdf
“Hawaiian Island Province Regional Pollinator Guide (Pollinator Guide)”. Ley, E., Buchmann, S., Kauffman, G., Jacobsen, O., Rager, M., Kwong, L., et al. (2015c). The Pollinator Partnership/North American Pollinator Protection Campaign – http://www.pollinator.org/PDFs/Guides/HawaiianIsland.EcoRegGuide.FINAL.hi-res.pdf
IUCN – https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/30931/83801843
Native Plants Hawaii. University of Hawaii. Daniela Dutra Elliott, Petersen Gross, Alyssa MacDonald. – http://nativeplants.hawaii.edu/plant/view/Hibiscus_clayi/
Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh – https://stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/25848
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2020. “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Initiation of 5-Year Status reviews for 129 Species in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Hawaii, Montana, California, and Nevada.” Federal Register 85(48): 14240–14243, March 11, 2020. – https://www.fws.gov/node/5101021
Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus_clayi
Music 21:40
Pledge 27:46
I honor the lifeforce of the Clay’s Hibiscus. I will commit its name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.
And so, in the name of the Clay’s Hibiscus I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.
I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.
