Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_stachytarpheta_australis
Branched Porterweed
Stachytarpheta australis
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About Branched Porterweed
A much-branched woody-based perennial with opposite ovate-to-elliptic leaves and crenate-serrate margins. Long slender spikes carry small pale-blue flowers. Fruiting calyces lie partly embedded in grooves of the spike axis; small mature fruit segments are dark brown to nearly black. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.
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
- Stachytarpheta australis
- Common names
- branched porterweed
- Hawaiian names
- ōwī · oī
- Other names
- Stachytarpheta australis · branched porterweed · ōwī · oī · Stachytarpheta cayennensis
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only. Retain the frozen regional name Stachytarpheta australis while documenting the reviewed Kew Stachytarpheta cayennensis concept. Use one pale-blue small-flowered form; do not transfer large magenta flowers from S. mutabilis or all former broad-synonym variants.
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; subshrub or shrub
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 much-branched woody-based perennial with opposite ovate-to-elliptic leaves and crenate-serrate margins. Long slender spikes carry small pale-blue flowers. Fruiting calyces lie partly embedded in grooves of the spike axis; small mature fruit segments are dark brown to nearly black. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.