Cyanea procera is a rare species of flowering plant in the bellflower family

Campanulaceae

The family Campanulaceae , of the order Asterales, contains about 2000 species in 70 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky non-toxic sap...

 known by the common name Molokai cyanea. It is endemic to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, where it is known only from the island of Molokai

Molokai

Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...

. It is a federally listed endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 of the United States. Like other Cyanea

Cyanea (plant)

Cyanea is a genus of lobelioid plants endemic to Hawaii. It contains more than 50 species, ranging in size from shrubs like C. eleeleensis to tall palm-like trees over 10 meters tall such as C. leptostegia...

it is known as haha in Hawaiian

Hawaiian language

The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...

.

This plant has been reduced to very low numbers. At one time it was thought to be extinct. By 1992 there were four plants known. By 2005 there was only a single plant of this species existing in the wild. Plant propagation

Plant propagation

Plant propagation is the process of creating new plants from a variety of sources: seeds, cuttings, bulbs and other plant parts. Plant propagation can also refer to the artificial or natural dispersal of plants.-Sexual propagation :...

 efforts have not been successful.

This Hawaiian lobelioid

Hawaiian lobelioids

The Hawaiian lobelioids are a group of flowering plants in the bellflower family, Campanulaceae, all of which are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. This is the largest plant radiation in the Hawaiian Islands, and indeed the largest on any island archipelago, with over 125 species...

 is a tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 which looks superficially like a palm. It is known from montane wet forests on Molokai, a habitat with a dense, closed canopy and a shady understory

Understory

Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...

. Associated plants include Asplenium

Asplenium

Asplenium is a genus of about 700 species of ferns, often treated as the only genus in the family Aspleniaceae, though other authors consider Hymenasplenium separate, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences, a different chromosome count, and structural differences in the rhizomes...

spp., pilo (Coprosma ochracea), māmaki

Pipturus albidus

Pipturus albidus, known as Māmaki in Hawaiian, is a species of flowering plant in the nettle family, Urticaceae, that is endemic to Hawaii. It inhabits coastal mesic, mixed mesic, and wet forests at elevations of...

 (Pipturus albidus), olonā

Touchardia latifolia

Touchardia latifolia, commonly known as Olonā in Hawaiian, is a species of flowering shrub in the nettle family, Urticaceae. T. latifolia is endemic to Hawaii and inhabits mesic valleys and wet forests at elevations of . Typical to many Hawaiian plants, the olonā does not have any stinging needles...

 (Touchardia latifolia), Sadleria

Sadleria

Sadleria is a genus of six species of ferns in the family Blechnaceae, all endemic to Hawaii.Species*Sadleria cyatheoides Kaulf. *Sadleria pallida Hook...

spp., ōpuhe (Urera glabra), Cheirodendron

Cheirodendron

Cheirodendron is a genus of flowering plant in the ivy family, Araliaceae. All six species in the genus are endemic to Polynesia. The five Hawaiian species are generally called ōlapa, and occur in wet forests on all major islands as well as some mesic forests, such as Kipuka...

spp., Cibotium

Cibotium

Cibotium is a genus of eleven species of tropical tree fern—subject to much confusion and revision—distributed fairly narrowly in Hawaii , Southeast Asia , and the cloud forests of Central America and Mexico...

spp., Machaerina spp., pua kala (Cyanea sonenocalyx), ōhā wai nui (Clermontia arborescens), Cyrtandra

Cyrtandra (plant)

Cyrtandra is a genus of flowering plants containing about 600 species, with more being discovered often, and is thus the largest genus in the family Gesneriaceae. These plants are native to Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, with the centre of diversity in Southeast Asia and the...

spp., and Diplazium

Diplazium

Diplazium is a genus of the cliff fern family that specifically includes the approximately 400 known species of twinsorus ferns. The Greek root is diplazein meaning double: the indusia in this genus lie on both sides of the vein...

species. The habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

 is threatened with degradation and destruction by a number of forces, especially feral pigs and goats

Feral goat

The feral goat is the domestic goat when it has become established in the wild. Feral goats occur in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Great Britain, Hawaii, the Galapagos and in many other parts of the world...

. Plants are damaged by slug

Slug

Slug is a common name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell...

s, snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

s, rat

Rat

Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...

s, and birds. They face competition

Competition (biology)

Competition is an interaction between organisms or species, in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. Limited supply of at least one resource used by both is required. Competition both within and between species is an important topic in ecology, especially community ecology...

 from exotic plant species

Introduced species

An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

 such as castor bean

Castor oil plant

The castor oil plant, Ricinus communis, is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It belongs to a monotypic genus, Ricinus, and subtribe, Ricininae. The evolution of castor and its relation to other species are currently being studied.Its seed is the castor bean which,...

 (Ricinus communis) and banana

Musa (genus)

Musa is one of three genera in the family Musaceae; it includes bananas and plantains. There are over 50 species of Musa with a broad variety of uses....

(Musa spp.).