Considered one of the most unusual and interesting plants of the Hawaiian flora. Flowers are cream to yellow in color and trumpet shaped.
Height: 1 – 2 m
Flowers bloom in September and October, and the small green capsule fruit ripens six to eight weeks after pollination. Scientists believe that moths have historically been the natural pollinator of Brighamia flowers.
Brighamia species are endemic to Hawaii.
Thus, although once fairly common, this species is now teetering on the brink of extinction in the wild.
Botanists and horticulturists concerned about the plight of Hawaii’s threatened plant species have helped save this fantastic plant from total extinction by pollinating the remaining wild specimens by hand and collecting seeds for propagation. Successful germination of the seeds has enabled large numbers of plants to be grown in botanical gardens to be used in a replanting programm. Today there are more plants in the Limahuli Gardens and McBride Gardens on Kaua’i than there are in the wild.
Some of the information in this description has been found at desert-tropicals.com, llifle.com and cactus-art.biz
