Brighamia insignis

Brighamia insignis (Campanulaceae family) is one of the rare and unique endemic plants native to Kauai. Today I had an opportunity to assist pollinating some specimens at the National Tropical Botanical Garden.

Mature plants look a little like cabbage growing at the top of a long branchless trunk that's fat at the bottom and tapering up.

We began by inventorying the plants they have in the nursery which is fewer than a hundred and of these perhaps two or three dozen were flowering. Of those flowering, we only had a few distinct genetic lines to work with, of which only one type was from the wild. The flowers function as male or female at different times and manage not to self-pollinate.

The idea was to cross the plants as much as possible in hopes of getting more viable offspring. Only a few plants were providing pollen so that was the limiting factor. This closeup of the process (remarkably clear for a cell phone shot) shows the pollen being applied to the sticky center of the flower. We managed to do five different crosses to a couple of specimens each. All the plants we were working with came from the Napali coast.

This will be an ongoing process as there are lots more flowering specimens still developing. We also need to learn what time of day (and other factors) will be most conducive for success.

It will be interesting to see if these attempts produce seed and then how those plantings do. If we are lucky perhaps these unusual plants can be grown out and reintroduced in the wild.