[H. b. var. mokuleiana M. Roe; H. b. subsp. moku- leianus (M. Roe) D. Bates; H. b. var. molokaiana Rock]
(end, E) Ma(o hau hele
Sprawling to erect shrubs 1-3 m tall, or small trees up to 5(—10) m tall; young branches glabrate to densely stellate pubescent, often with scattered, reddish to yel-lowish, spreading, simple, spinescent, pustular-based hairs. Leaf blades orbicular in outline, 5-15 cm long and wide, shallowly to usually deeply 3-lobed, 5-lobed, or 7- lobed, lobes ovate to obovate and sometimes overlapping, acute, coarsely serrate or even secondarily lobed, midvein on lower surface with or without a basal gland, both surfaces glabrate to puberulent, base truncate to cordate, petioles slender, usually more than 1/2 the length of blades, stipules filiform, 5-15 mm long, early deciduous, leaving an elliptic scar. Flowers solitary or few in short terminal racemes, pedicels stout, not articulate, 0.5-1.7 cm long; involucral bracts 7-10, sometimes spreading, adnate basally to calyx, subulate to linear-lanceolate, 8-22(-30) mm long, 1-2.5mm wide at base, channeled or plane and sometimes secretory apically, with or without hispid, pustular-based, simple or2-3-branched hairs; calyx reddish to yellowish, 1.5-4 cm long, somewhat larger in fruit, lobed to middle or more deeply, usually hispid with simple to few-branched hairs, with or without a raised, elongate gland on midrib of each triangular lobe; petals yellow, usually with a maroon spot at base, drying greenish or purple, spreading, 8 cm long; staminal column exserted, closely antheriferous in upper Va or nearly to base. Capsules subglobose to ovoid, beaked, 1.1-2 cm long, densely villous-hispid. Seeds angulate-reniform, up to 4.5 mm long, puberulent. [2n = 144*, ca. 140*.] Rare and local in dry forest and shrubland, 130-800 m, on all of the main islands except Niihau and Kaho‘olawe. This species was reportedly collected on Kaho‘o- lawe by Remy.—Plate 123.
Hibiscus brackenridgei is closely related to the widespread H. divaricatus Jacq. and may not be specifically distinct from it. Hibiscus brackenridgei varies morphologically from island to island, but population series seem to fall into 2 principal morpho-logical types, treated as subspecies: subsp. brackenridgei [incl. H. brackenridgei var. molokaiana], a sprawling to erect shrub or small tree with calyx 1.5-2.5 cm long, involucral bracts Vi as long to as long as the calyx, and petals with or without basal maroon spotting, 3.5-5(-6) cm long, occurring in dry forest and shrubland, near sea level up to 370 m, on Moloka‘i, Lanai, Maui, and Hawaii; and subsp. moku- leianus, a tree with calyx 2.5-4 cm long, involucral bracts 18-25 mm long, and maroon-spotted petals 6-8 cm long, occurring in a similar habitat, at Lrhu‘e and reportedly Olokele Canyon, Kauai, and in the Wai‘anae Mountains between Kawaiha- pai and Pu‘upane, 120-240 m, 0‘ahu. The pubescence of subsp. brackenridgei varies from stellate to hirsute with simple hairs, and the calyx midvein usually bears an obscure, bordered gland. Plants of subsp. mokuleianus are spiny-hirsute with simple, pustular-based hairs. The midvein gland, if present at all, is hidden by the dense, pustular bases of the hairs.