Cheiranthera cyanea (Cheiranthera cyanea)
Description
Cyanea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Campanulaceae. These Hawaiian lobelioids are endemic to Hawaii. They grow in moist and wet forest habitat.Its name in Hawaiian is h-h-. Over 90% of Cyanea species are found only on one island in the Hawaiian chain. Most Cyanea are trees with few branches or none. The inflorescence is a raceme of 4 to 45 flowers which grows from the leaf axils. The fruit is a fleshy berry.There have been several theories regarding the evolution of large prickles on plants endemic to islands that lack any mammalian or reptilian herbivores. One such theory suggests that the prickles are a defense against herbivory by the moa-nalo, a few taxa of flightless ducks that were made extinct from the islands relatively recently, within the last 1600 years. Cyanea flowers are pollinated by birds such as the Hawaiian honeycreepers, and the seeds are dispersed by birds that take the fruits. There are about 78 species in the genus.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Apiales
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Family: Pittosporaceae
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Genus: Cheiranthera
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