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Plant of the Week: Brighamia Insignis

69 months ago

Hello lovely flowers! Today I'm back with a new plant. This one is different, though. Brighamia Insignis is the first ENDANGERED plant I'm introducing on my posts.

Brighamia Insignis is an endemic plant (meaning it originates and only grows there) from Hawaii. It's commonly called Olulu in Hawaiian. It grows on the islands of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau, therefore,it's extremely rare. I've seen it at a Botanical Indoor Garden in Singapore, growing in perfect conditions. I hope this helps to spread the species to avoid extinction, as in the wild, it is almost extinct. How very sad.

It is becoming extinct in the wild because it's only pollinator, a particular moth (hawk-moth) is itself, extinct.

The fact that it is constantly exposed to humans who enjoy hiking isn't helpful either. And natural causes such as weather and bugs end up destroying the plant too.

At first look it is simillar to a succulent. Thick succulent stem and fleshy light green leaves, common in succulents. (When a plant has light green leaves means it is more sun loving, as they relfect all the light around the plant through their translucent leaves.) It shoots beautiful long yellow tube flowers displayed in 5 petals at the end, almost looking like a distant relative to a Plumeria (but it isn't, Brighamia is it's own species). According to my research, it is said to smell like honey. And it happens to grow on the driest parts of those islands, which is common for succulents.

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