Clermontia waimeae
Genus: Clermontia sect. Clermontioideae (sepaloid sepals)
Range: Hawai'i, Kohala, bogs and wet forest, 1,070-1,520 m.
Growth form: Shrub, 1-7 m tall.
This species grows in the forests in the Kohala mountains above Waimea village in the Parker Ranch. Rock (1913b) recognized that this plant was closely related to Clermontia parviflora, but Hillebrand had created the sections based on petaloid/sepaloid sepals and the principal difference between these two species is in their calyx lobes, so Rock considered it a new species. Oddly, at the same time (Rock, 1913a), he was considering a variety of Cl. parviflora, var. calycina that had short calyx lobes. Lammers, 1990, placed this variety in synonymy with Cl. waimeae.
Notice the small sepals. Detail of herbarium specimen, Rock & Sproat #25733, BISH; Image from JSTOR Global Plants site
How to identify: The Clermontia from the Kohalas include: Cl. parviflora, Cl. drepanomorpha, Cl. kohalae, Cl. calophylla, and our present species Cl. waimeae. All belong to sect. Clermontia with petaloid sepals except Cl. waimeae.
Description: The typical Clermontia habit, a shrub with multiple branching, reaching 5 m tall (Lammers, 1990, says 7 m) and glabrous stems and branches.
Sources:
- Rock, 1913a (as Clermontia parviflora var. calycina);
- Rock, 1913b;
- Rock, 1919 (as Clermontia parviflora var. calycina);
- Rock, 1919;
- Wimmer, 1943 (as Clermontia parviflora var. calycina);
- Wimmer, 1943;
- Degener, 1956 (as Clermontia parviflora var. calycina);
- Wimmer, 1968 (as Clermontia parviflora var. calycina);
- Wimmer, 1968 (incl. var. obovata, var. longisepala and f. lanceolata);
- Wagner et al., 1990.