Tongan Name: none

English Name: none

Reason for Listing: restricted in Tonga to a pair of islands, and its disappearance from elsewhere in Polynesia (Samoa)

Status: rare indigenous

Suggestion Action: The vegetation and flora of Kao and Tofua, the only places it now occurs, should be preserved.  This adventive but native species is apparently unable to compete with more recently introduced weeds in most disturbed habitats. 

Indigenous to Tonga, ranging westward from there and Samoa to New Guinea.  The only records of this adventive but native species from Tonga are from Kao and Tofua.  It is rare in Fiji, but has been seen in recent times (Whistler, pers. record), but was last collected in Samoa over a hundred years ago.  It is reported in Tonga from somewhat open native forest, ranging from ca. 360 to 800 m elevation.  It may have originally been a weed of all elevations, but was subsequently extirpated from the lowlands by competition with more aggressive weeds introduced to Tonga in modern times (since ca. 1772).  See Randeria (1960) in Blumea 10: 231 for further information.  No local names or uses have been reported.

Coarse erect herb up to 3 m in height, with pubescent stems.  Leaves simple, alternate; blade elliptic, 4–27 cm long, attenuate at the base, acute to acuminate at the tip; surfaces appressed pubescent; margins toothed; petiole 0.5–3 cm long.  Inflorescence of discoid heads in clusters borne in axillary and terminal panicles 10–30 cm long; heads 5–8 mm long, with linear to oblong phyllaries 5–8 mm long, the receptacle naked.  Disc florets numerous, yellow, tubular, shallowly 5-lobed, ca. 6–8 mm long.  Ray florets absent.  Ovary inferior, 2-celled, with a long, 2-lobed style.  Stamens 5, epipetalous, included.  Fruit an oblong, 5–10-ribbed achene ca. 0.5 mm long, with a pappus comprising numerous fine white setae 4–5 mm long, in a single series borne on a basal ring.  Flowering and fruiting have been reported throughout the year.

Distinguishable by its tall herbaceous habit; alternate leaves; panicles of heads bearing white disc florets; and tiny achenes bearing numerous terminal bristles in a basal ring. 

KAO:
Buelow 2822—Treeline above Topu‘efio at 450 m elevation.
Buelow 2941—Moist rock outcropping at 360 m elevation.
Buelow 3044—Second crater from the top on the northeast side of the island at 700 m elevation.
Buelow 3043—Next to ravine coming from the second extinct crater on the northeast side down from the top of the crater.
Buelow 3045—Scrub forest on the plateau around the highest crater on the northeast side of the island at 800 m elevation.

TOFUA:
Buelow 2720—About 50 m down from the summit on the outer slope of the main caldera on the side opposite from Lofia Crater.
Buelow 2753—Near the summit on outer slope of the main crater above Ha‘amatu‘a at over 400 m elevation.