Endangered Native Hawaiian Lobelia

Title

Endangered Native Hawaiian Lobelia

Artist

Heidi Fickinger

Medium

Photograph - Photographic Print

Description

This unusual and beautiful flowering plant is a rare native Hawaiian Lobelia, Lobelia niihauensis. It is from Ni'hau Island and Kauai Island and few plants still exist in the wild. A conservation project to re-establish populations in the wild is estimated to have been only 25% completed to have 100 individuals populations established. Predation by feral pigs and goats has also destroyed many of these magnificent flowering plants, leaving remaining plants in the wild growing mostly on high, inaccessible cliff-side locations. Lobelia niihauensis is listed as a U.S Federally Endangered Species.
From recent DNA research evidence on native lobelias in the Islands, it is thought that all native species are derived from a single introduction. This was likely a Lobelia-like species that arrived about 13 million years ago, when Gardner Pinnacles and French Frigate Shoals were high islands and long before the current main islands existed. This makes Hawaiian lobelias one of the most ancient species in the Islands. There is no known Hawaiian name for this species; any name given by the ancient Hawaiians has been lost.

Featured in the following FAA group galleries:
* Only Blooms & Flowers Photography
* Wildflowers
* Positive Energy
* A Fascinating Purple - Nature Only
* Digital Art & Photography for a Simple Imagination
* A Fascinating Purple - Nature Only

Uploaded

July 28th, 2020

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