Its scientific name is Cyanea rivularis . In the mountains of Kaua’i it farm conical - shaped lavender and white flowers , which like many endangered plant species across the state , are key components to a fully functioning and intelligent aboriginal ecosystem .
As the fiftieth anniversary of the federal Endangered Species Act ( ESA ) is lionise this calendar month , the Endangered Species Coalition prefer Hawai’i ’s Plant Extinction Prevention Program ( PEPP ) as one of 10 outstanding efforts to recognize . This was based on the discovery of a rare plant , Silene lanceolata , come upon by PEPP technician Susan Deans last year while rappelling on a remote cliffside .
Matt Keir is the DOFAW lead for the PEPP program , which pock its 20th year of existence this twelvemonth . Continued existence is what it ’s all about , as the program ’s object list contains more than 260 uncommon and endangered Hawaiian plants .
" We have almost one-half of all endangered plants in the United States . So , the level of rarity in Hawai’i is unsurpassed anywhere else in the world . Plants make the tilt when fewer than 50 private plant life remain in the state of nature . PEPP has been incredibly successful in get to plants before they go altogether extinct . After two decades of work , we have seen about 30 dissimilar species go extinct in the natural state but save through culture , and that ’s been our biggest success , " Keir explicate .
Which brings us back to Cyanea rivularis . The PEPP team on Kaua’i is presently involved in an ambitious project to affix the population of only three baseless flora left , with 2,500 cultivated plant at five different land site .
Scott Heintzman , Kauaʻi PEPP Field Coordinator , allege , " Plants in the website we ’ve pass over so far are doing peachy . We ’ve maybe fall back only two plant of 700 that are out now . Already , native honeycreeper birds are interacting with the plants and cross - pollinating individual , so we ’re really find out a rebound of this mintage . It ’s doing great . "
At the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife ( DOFAW ) mid - elevation rarified plant greenhouse in the Koke’e sphere , Keir , Heintzman , and PEPP Technician Susan Deans walk between rows of rarefied young plants . They identify each of them by their scientific name and indicate how many wild one remain . Two here , five there , a couple dozen in other subject .
Deans say , " We do n’t really study the plant we bring from the nursery to be wild . The finish is for those plants to reproduce and then for seedlings to pop up underneath them , and then we would look at those to be wild . The goal is to create self - keep , healthy populations of species back into areas where they were once abundant . That happens once they ’ve removed scourge that knocked off hazardous plant in the first place . "
Those terror admit ungulate like pig , which are kept out of sensitive re - planting country by marauder - substantiation fencing .
When asked why people should care about these rarified , native plants , Heintzman commented , " The loose answer is that we do n’t really bed what these plant can do for us as a human backwash in the hereafter . We do n’t know if these can contribute to scientific discipline or practice of medicine . Not only that , but a lot of these plant are also culturally significant . They were part of the Hawaiian toolbox , used over centuries for intellectual nourishment and medicine .
The success of the PEPP syllabus is due to tremendous quislingism with partners like Lyon Arboretum , which accept in seeds for propagation and entrepot . Keir said , " The dear affair about this program has been the staff and partners . We work with an incredible radical of gifted people who are dedicated to doing really difficult fieldwork . These multitude are the well of the good , who have dedicated their lives and careers to protecting Hawai’i . "
" Helping recover these plant should be important to everyone . They are gemstone of creation . They ’re special , beautiful plants , and if we lose them , they ’re gone . We ’ll never get them back , and that ’s hard to swallow . Hawai’i is a limited spot , and most of these flora are found nowhere else . To lose any of them is heartbreaking , " Heintzman added .
Keir concluded , " We have the tools , we have the knowledge , and we know what require to be done . It ’s just a question of whether we can get enough of them in time . Building our program across the state to keep stride with the ever - increasing experimental extinction pace in Hawai’i is key . If PEPP can step in in time , we can collect seeds from barbaric works and get them into polish before they die out and then re - prove them in the future . That ’s been another one of PEPP ’s major milepost and success . "
reservoir : dlnr.hawaii.gov
