Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit University of Hawaii at Manoa
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PACIFIC COOPERATIVE STUDIES UNIT UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA Department of Botany 3190 Maile Way Honolulu. HI 96822 Technical Report 120 FLOWERING PLANTS AND GYMNOSPERMS OF HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK A.C. Medeiros, L.L. Loope, and C.G. Chimera Haleakala National Park P.O. Box 369 Makawao, HI 96768 June 1998 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................................3 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................4 ECOSYSTEMS OF HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK ....................................................4 SPECIES COMPILATIONS: ...............................................................................................11 SPECIES ACCOUNT LEGEND ......................................................................................... 14 FIGURE 1. EXAMPLE SPECIES LISTINGS WITH LEGEND CODE: ...........................16 FIGURE 2 . MAP OF HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK ................................................. 17 SPECIES ACCOUNTS ........................................................................................................ 18 GYMNOSPERMS ............................................................................................................... 18 ANGIOSPERMS ..................................................................................................................21 MONOCOTYLEDONS ....................................................................................................... 21 DILOTYIBDONS1' ........................................................................................................... 56 SPECIES ACCOUNTS: FOR QUESTIONABLE AhD UNIDENTIFIED PLANT SPECIES OF THE PARK .................................................................................................. 149 GYMNOSPERMS ............................................................................................................. 149 MONOCOTYLEDONS ..................................................................................................... 150 DICOTYLEDONS .......................................................................................................... 152 LITERATURE CITED ....................................................................................................... 163 INDEX................................................................................................................................ 169 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This paper represents the observations of many individuals and could not be made without their support and shared efforts. Special thanks go out to Stephen J. Anderson, William P. Haus, and Patti Welton of the Haleakah National Park Resources Management division who, with their botanical expertise and first hand field knowledge, have provided innumerable contributions to this document; without their assistance it would not have been thoroughly updated and completed. We thank Robert W. Hobdy who has generously shared his extensive knowledge of the Hawaiian flora, contributing much to our understanding of Maui's natural history. We thank Betsy H. Gagne and Ronald J. Nagata for their shared knowledge based on years of extensive field work in the Park. We thank the late Dr. Harold St. John (1892-1991) for much encouragement and for the taxonomic insights and knowledge so unselfishly given to the senior author in early years. To these we say: Mahalo a mau loa. We also thank Karen N. Ardoin, Timothy Bailey, Perry D. Bednorz, Joan Canfield, Gerald D. Carr, the late Peter J. Connally, Carmelle F. Crivellone, Linda W. Cuddihy, Mark Defly, Legario ("Hanky") Eharis, Raymond Fox, the late Wayne C. Gagne, Edward Grasa, Ross Hart, Derral R. Herbst, Paul K. Higashino, R. Alan Holt, Clyde T. Imada, Michael Ing, James D. Jacobi, Sabine Jessel, Anna Kahaleuahi, Michael Kiehn, John I. Kjargaard, Joel Lau, Terry Lind, Jane Medler, David W. Miranda, Arthur L. Mitchell, Kenneth M. Nagata, Peter J. O'Connor, Larry Olney, Steve Perlman, Dana Peterson, Edward K. Pu, Pamela J. Rasfeld, Robert H. Robichaux, Theodore Rodrigues, Ann K. Sakai, Gregory L. Santos, Clifford W. Smith, the late Lani Stemmermann, the late Benjamin C. Stone, Charles P. Stone, Wayne Takeuchi, Mark Tanaka-Sanders, John Tavares, David A. Texeira, Phillip Thomas, Warren L. Wagner, Fredrick R. Warshauer, Stephen G. Weller, Charles Wertheim, and Alvin Y. Yoshinaga for generously sharing their knowledge. We are grateful to the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu for allowing us access to the unpublished field notes of Charles N. Forbes (1883-1920) and Joseph F. Rock (1884-1962) whose botanical work on Maui provides unique and valuable information, and to the staff and administration of the Herbarium Pacificum at the Bishop Museum who allowed access to their botanical collections. We thank James D. Jacobi and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service for generously providing us with a copy of field notes of 1980 Maui Forest Bird Survey biologists Paul K. Higashino, R. Alan Holt, Holly H. MacEldowney, and Fredrick R. Warshauer. We thank the late George L.H. Le Bouvier for review of diacritical markers (glottal stop and macron) for Hawaiian language using the standard references, the Hawaiian Dictionary by Pukui and Elbert (1986) generally and Pukui, Elbert, and Mo'okini (1974) for place names. We offer special thanks to Stephanie Joe, Philip Thomas and Lars Mohr for thoughtful computer assistance. INTRODUCTION This report attempts to synopsize current and past information for all flowering plant and gymnosperm species currently and formerly occurring within the boundaries of Haleakall National Park, Maui, Hawaiian Islands. Encompassing the eroded summit and a slice of the eastern rain forest flank of Haleakall volcano, the Park, 11,400 hectares (27,800 acres) in size ranges from sea level to 3055 m (10,023 ft) elevation. Despite its relative small size, the Park includes native alpine and subalpine herb and shrubland, grassland, and rain forest, providing literally over a few miles, the climatic variability usually associated with landscapes on the scale of thousands of miles. By the late 1980s, much of the park was protected from the damaging effects of feral goats and pigs. For reasons of economics, quantitative monitoring must be limited to relatively few species. Descriptive information contained within this and other papers may be crucial for detecting changes in distribution and abundance of species and for guiding management strategies. Haleakall National Park, complemented by adjoining conservation lands managed by the State of Hawai'i and The Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i, serves as the core of one of the more viable conservation units in the Hawaiian Islands. Table 1 Numbers of flowering plant and gymnosperm species found in Haleakah National Park CATEGORY: Non- Hawaii Poly. Maui native Indigenous Endemic Intro endemic Totals Gymnosperms 19 0 0 0 0 19 Monocots 83 25 25 10 3 143 Dicots 199 32 164 11 38 406 Flowering plants 282 57 189 2 1 4 1 549 TOTAL 30 1 57 189 2 1 4 1 568 ECOSYSTEMS OF HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK Alpine (aeolian) zone Haleakala's alpine zone occurs above 6560 ft (2000 meters) elevation within the cinder- dominated crater (an erosional depression with relatively recent volcanic activity) and above 8530 ft (2600 meters) on the older, outside western slope of the volcano. Likely constraints on plant survival and growth within this life zone include high solar radiation, marked diurnal temperature ranges, extremes in soil moisture levels, and other factors associated with the substrate. The alpine zone on Haleakall is sparsely vegetated (less than 25% cover, and usually less than 5%) and has low plant species diversity. The alpine zone landscape consists of rough broken lava features, cinder cones, and cinder fields. In Haleakall crater, the alpine zone occurs adjacent to and sharply defined from relatively dense subalpine vegetation on older and more developed substrates. The relatively few plant species of this zone comprise a subset of typical subalpine species (Dubautia menziesii, Stvphelia tameiameiae) together with unique characteristic elements (Tetramolopium humile, Arnyroxiphium sandwicenese subsp. macrocephalum, Silene struthioloides, A~rostissandwicensis). The native bunchgrass Deschampsia nubinena, found in a number of native plant communities, is the most common native grass; other grasses, Anrostis sandwicensis and Trisetum nlomeratum, are locally found primarily in the alpine zone. Generally, non-native species are few, limited in cover, and largely restricted to habitats modified by man, such as on compacted cinder, surrounding buildings, and in pavement cracks in parking lots. Characteristic alien species include Hvpochoeris radicata (gosmore), Oenothera stricta (evening primrose), and Bromus willdenowii (rescue grass). Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) and Heterotheca nrandiflora (telegraph plant) are invasive with natural levels of disturbance that occur in cinder flats and slopes in the crater. Based on its invasiveness in similar conditions on Hawai'i island, Verbascum thapsus (mullein) should be regarded as a serious potential weed in the alpine zone of HaleakalB. Largely barren rocklands especially near the mountain summit and within HaleakalB crater comprise the aeolian zone (Howarth and Mu111992), known for its local endemic arthropod species that feed largely on wind-imported insects from lower elevations. Subalpine shrublands Subalpine shrublands