Delissea niihauensis H.St.John

Genus: Delissea sect. Delissea.

Status: Extinct. Last collected in 1865.

Etymology: Named for the plant's location, Ni'ihau.

Range: Ni'ihau, cliffs. USGS maps shows range including D. kauaiensis.

Growth form: Trees, 2-10 m tall.

This species was first collected by Remy prior to 1855, then again by Brigham in 1865. These two plants were first described by Mann under the name Delissea undulata. Forbes (1913) made an enumeration of plants from Ni'ihau based on the survey of Mr. J.F.G. Stokes and his guide Mr. Kalua Keale. He notes that most of the available land of Ni'ihau had been given over to pasture of sheep and horses and also that it had been overrun with goats, but as of his writings (1913) the goats had been exterminated. Concerning Delissea niihauensis (as Delissea undulata) Forbes cites Brigham, who collected the plant in 1865, as saying this species "was more plentiful over the area where it occurred than perhaps any other lobeliaceous plant occurring in an equal area on the [Hawaiian] group." However, 50 years after Brigham wrote that statement, Stokes did not encounter the plant. Delissea niihauensis is not the only victim of man's "industry and civilization". Forbes records older inhabitants as saying that there was a considerable area covered in Myoporum sandwicensis, perhaps 20 feet high. "Now only a few sticks of dead wood and roots remain to prove the truth of these statements."

Description: Tall, woody, glabrous simple stems topped with a dense apical rosette of leaves. The range of heights for this plant was not clearly noted prior to their extinction, but the other Delissea from this section range from 1 to 9 m tall.

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