Nameless Native

Description:

Shrubs, 3-4 feet tall with long, narrow leaves; long, tubular pink flowers which from some perspectives look like miniature flamingos (images 1 and 2) and somewhat remarkably appearing hemispheric seed pods--some of which at first glance remind me of the face of a barn owl!--(images 3 and 4).

Habitat:

Tropical montane bog.

Notes:

Spotted at several locations in Mt. Kaala bog. The distribution of this native Hawaiian species, which lacks a common/vernacular/popular name, is limited to the summit bog and upper slopes of Mt. Kaala on Oahu. Other species of Trematolobelia exists throughout the Hawaiian islands in similarly localized populations. There is a Wikipedia article in Swedish, but neither it nor its English translation can be added as a reference because (my conclusion) neither URL is in a format recognized by PN software. It adds little substantive info to the spotting, but anyone who wants to check it out anyway may find it by googling "Trematolobelia kaalae". Finally, this species is also classified as T. macrostachys and T. macrostachys var. kaalae.