''Dubautia plantaginea'' is a rare species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name plantainleaf dubautia. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

where it is the only member of the

silversword alliance The silversword alliance, also known as the tarweeds, refers to an adaptive radiation of around 30 species in the composite or sunflower family, Asteraceae. The group is endemic to Hawaii, and is derived from a single immigrant to the islands. Fo ...

that is found on all six of the largest islands (

Kaua'i Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

O'ahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O’ ...

Moloka'i Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length and width with a us ...

Lana'i Lanai ( haw, Lānai, , , also ,) is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple p ...

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

Hawai'i Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

).Carr, G. D
''Dubautia plantaginea''.
Hawaiian Silverswords. Two of the three subspecies are rare and

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

.''Dubautia pauciflorula''.
The Nature Conservancy. Like other ''Dubautia'' this plant is called ''na`ena`e''.USFWS
Species Reports: Listed Plants.
/ref> This plant varies in

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

, taking the form of a small

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

to a

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

up to 7 meters tall. There are three subspecies.USFWS
''Dubautia plantaginea'' ssp. ''humilis'' Five-year Review.
July 2009. The dwarf subspecies, ssp. ''humilis'', is endemic to

, where there is only one population consisting of about 50 plants. This subspecies was federally listed as an endangered species in 1999.USFWS
ETWP; Final Endangered Status for 10 Plant Taxa From Maui Nui, HI.
''Federal Register'' September 3, 1999. The ssp. ''magnifolia'' is a shrub or a tree which is endemic to Kaua'i, where there are no more than 2 populations remaining. It was listed as endangered in 2010.USFWS
Determination of endangered status for 48 species on Kauai and designation of critical habitat; Final rule.
April 13, 2010. These plants grow in moist and wet forest habitat with 75 to over 700 centimeters of precipitation annually. Threats to this species and its habitat include

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

rockslide A rockslide is a type of landslide caused by rock failure in which part of the bedding plane of failure passes through compacted rock and material collapses ''en masse'' and not in individual blocks. Note that a rockslide is similar to an avalanc ...

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

ing, and

invasive plant species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

such as Hilo grass (''Paspalum conjugatum''). The ssp. ''magnifolia'' was decimated by

Hurricane Iniki Hurricane Iniki ( ; Hawaiian: ''iniki'' meaning "strong and piercing wind") was the most powerful hurricane to strike Hawaii in recorded history. Forming on September 5, 1992, during the strong 1990–1995 El Niño, Iniki was one of eleven Centr ...

in 1992.

References

External links

*
USDA Plants Profile for ''Dubautia plantaginea'' (plantainleaf dubautia)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3677805 plantaginea Endemic flora of Hawaii Biota of Hawaii (island) Biota of Kauai Biota of Lanai Biota of Maui Biota of Molokai Biota of Oahu