''Lobelia hypoleuca,'' common names kuhiʻaikamoʻowahie, 'ōpelu, liua, or mo'owahie, is one of several species in the genus '' Lobelia'' endemic to

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 ...

though cultivated elsewhere. It is found in nature on the islands of

Kauaʻi 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 List of islands of th ...

Oʻahu 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’ ...

Molokaʻi 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 ...

Lānaʻi 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 pl ...

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 ...

and Hawaiʻi. ''Lobelia hypoleuca'' is a shrub that can attain a height of 3.3 m (11 feet). Stems are woody, whitish, with a rough texture. Leaves are narrowly lanceolate with teeth along the margins, up to 60 cm (2 feet) long, green and shiny above, but appearing white on the underside due to a dense covering of fine wooly hairs (hence the epithet "''hypoleuca''" meaning "white below"). The plant produces 3-7 tall flowering stalks, each up to 40 cm (16 inches)long. Flowers are blue.Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington
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References

hypoleuca Flora of Hawaii {{Campanulaceae-stub