Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_melicope_kavaiensis
Pilo ʻUla
Melicope kavaiensis
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About Pilo ʻUla
A shrub with wand-like stems and yellow-brown hairs on young growth. Opposite, widely spaced leathery leaves are broad, brittle and rounded to notched at the tip, with arched veins near the margin. Hairy axillary clusters carry separate floral sexual forms. Broad capsules have straight to slightly curved carpels joined in their lower fifth to half. This native shrub is a component of Hawaiian vegetation. Monitoring mature plants, new recruits and occupied cover can assess persistence and replacement. The reviewed accounts do not establish a measured Kauaʻi population trend or quantify an ecosystem effect.
Kauaʻi evidence
Generated media is not occurrence evidence. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Melicope kavaiensis
- Hawaiian names
- pilo ʻula · alani · alani kuahiwi
- Other names
- Melicope kavaiensis · pilo ʻula · alani · alani kuahiwi
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Endemic
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only. Flower, ripe capsule and seed colors are not established by the reviewed description. Keep sexual forms coherent and prefer vegetative diagnostics.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Not yet assessed
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or subshrub; Shrubs, new growth densely yellowish brown tomentose or sometimes puberulent, ± becoming glabrate; stems wand-like, 1-5 m long.
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Occupied area and vegetation cover; Mature plants and new recruits; Reproductive plants and fruiting frequency. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
- Data gaps
- Current island extent and population trend · Measured local ecological effects
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- A shrub with wand-like stems and yellow-brown hairs on young growth. Opposite, widely spaced leathery leaves are broad, brittle and rounded to notched at the tip, with arched veins near the margin. Hairy axillary clusters carry separate floral sexual forms. Broad capsules have straight to slightly curved carpels joined in their lower fifth to half. This native shrub is a component of Hawaiian vegetation. Monitoring mature plants, new recruits and occupied cover can assess persistence and replacement. The reviewed accounts do not establish a measured Kauaʻi population trend or quantify an ecosystem effect.