Forest Starviolet

Description

Kadua centranthoides is a species of plant in the genus Kadua inthe Rubiaceae family. It is endemic to Hawaii. Kadua centranthoides grows as an upright or creeping dwarf shrub that can reach heights of 0.3 to 2 meters. All shoots are mostly bare and colored blue-green, rarely the inflorescences are finely hairy. The oppositely arranged leaves on the branches are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The winged petiole is 0 to 1 centimeter long. The simple, leathery leaf blade is narrow to broadly ovate to heart-shaped and oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceolate at a length of 4 to 16.5 centimeters and a width of 1 to 5.5 centimeters. The upper side of the leaf blade is glabrous, while the underside is glabrous or finely hairy, the hairiness usually occurring only along the leaf midnerve. The base of the blade is more or less heart-shaped, the tip of the blade, which is sometimes truncated, is pointed for a short or long time, and the edge of the blade is entire. Several lateral veins branch off from each side of the central vein of the leaf. The stipulesresemble the foliage leaves, are fused with the base of the leaf stalk and thereby form a spiked leaf sheath. The broad triangular leaf sheath is 0.4 to 1 centimeters long and has a 0.3 to 3 millimeters long spike tip. Kadua is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It comprises 29 species, all restricted to Polynesia. Twenty-two of these are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. Some of the species are common at high elevation. Others are single-island endemics or very rare, and a few are probably extinct. Kadua affinis is widely distributed in Hawaii and is polymorphic. The type species for the genus is Kadua acuminata. Kadua was formerly included in a broadly defined and polyphyletic Hedyotis, which encompassed, in addition to Kadua, species now placed in Oldenlandia, Oldenlandiopsis, Houstonia, and other genera. Hedyotis is now circumscribed more narrowly.