Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_heritiera_littoralis
Looking-glass Mangrove
Heritiera littoralis
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About Looking-glass Mangrove
Looking-glass Mangrove (Heritiera littoralis) is an introduced tree treated as naturalized on Kauaʻi by Bishop Museum’s 2025 checklist and the 2026 Smithsonian checklist. Current extent is unassessed. Native to mangrove, coastal swamp, and lowland wet tropical forest from eastern Africa through southern and southeastern Asia to the western Pacific. On Kauaʻi it is checklist-documented as naturalized at island scale; present abundance and ecological effects are not quantified.
Kauaʻi evidence
Taxonomic identity, tree form, diagnostic morphology and island occurrence use the linked reviewed sources. Historical planting, cultivation, naturalization and invasive status are separate. Generated imagery is not occurrence evidence.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Heritiera littoralis
- Common names
- Looking-glass Mangrove · Looking-glass tree
- Other names
- Heritiera littoralis · Looking-glass mangrove · Looking-glass tree
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-06
- Evidence limits
- Current island-wide abundance, occupied coastal habitat, reproductive distribution, population trend, and ecological effects on Kauaʻi remain unassessed.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Small male and female flowers described in the Flora treatments mature into one to several hard, one-seeded keeled carpels. Recruitment requires pollination, fruit maturation, dispersal, and seedling establishment in suitable coastal substrate; Kauaʻi phenology and recruitment are unmeasured.
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Tree
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Not yet assessed
- Data gaps
- Current population extent and trajectory · Additional species-specific ecological and conservation sources
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- Looking-glass Mangrove (Heritiera littoralis) is an introduced tree treated as naturalized on Kauaʻi by Bishop Museum’s 2025 checklist and the 2026 Smithsonian checklist. Current extent is unassessed. Native to mangrove, coastal swamp, and lowland wet tropical forest from eastern Africa through southern and southeastern Asia to the western Pacific. On Kauaʻi it is checklist-documented as naturalized at island scale; present abundance and ecological effects are not quantified.
Sources and further reading
- https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:823569-1
- https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:823569-1/general-information
- https://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/publications/pdf/tr75.pdf
- https://editedimages.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Imadaetal.2025Hawaiianvascularplants.xlsx
- https://doi.org/10.5479/si.32124043