A New Endemic Hibiscus Species from Ovalau, Fiji

This report of Hibiscus discovery begins in the mid-19th and the laid-back and historical port town of Levuka on Ovalau in Lomaiviti Province, Fiji. Colloquially referred to as ‘The Old Capital’, Levuka was founded around 1820 by European settlers and traders. Levuka soon thrived, transforming into an important South Pacific port with periodic visits being undertaken by scientific expeditions. 

In 1838, Honore Jacquinot, the French zoologist on Dumont d’Urville’s Astrolabe expedition (1837-1840), collected the first specimen of Hibiscus in Fiji from near Levuka. This specimen of H. rosa-sinensis L. is held in the Herbier Muséum Paris and is typical of pre-European Pacific introductions of H. rosa-sinensis which are usually called kaute or aute in Polynesian languages.

Four subsequent botanical collections (undertaken between 1854 and 1928) of Hibiscus in section Lilibiscus from Ovalau and the neighbouring island of Moturiki, have also been  referred to H. rosa-sinensis.  In 1854, William Milne, the Scottish botanist on board the H.M.S. Herald (a US Exploratory Expedition vessel) collected a Hibiscus specimen on ‘high grounds’ of South Ovalau. This scant specimen comprised a twig with three leaves and a flower. A few years later, in 1860, the German Botanist Berthold Seemann, collected a Hibiscus specimen, presumably from a garden plant with double-petalled flowers on Moturiki. The next Hibiscus specimen collection from Ovalau was by US naturalist Edwin Horace Bryan Junior in 1924: a double-petalled red-flowered plant growing near a walking trail (and possibly planted) at about 200 m elevation.  Then in 1928 US botanist John Gillespie collected a single red-petalled Hibiscus on a stream near the summit of main ridge west of Levuka. These four Hibiscus specimens from Lomaiviti Province differ from typical H. rosa-sinensis in their narrower leaves, rounded leaf-base, and differing leaf margin dentation.

Following on from field work on other Fiji islands which resulted in the discovery of two new Lilibiscus species we undertook three field visits to Ovalau in 2017. The first visit was undertaken from 3-4 April 2017 with local ethnobotanist John Bennett. During this visit, villagers from Arovudi reported a location near the base of Mt Tomuna in the northern part of Ovalau known as Vei Senitoa – or ‘place of Hibiscus’ in Fijian – in which wild Hibiscus were to be found growing amongst rocks.

During the second visit (8-10 June 2017) an attempt was made to reach Vei Senitoa walking in from Rukuruku village. The reconnaissance team comprised Bobo Ahtack, Arioka Koroduadua, Sanaila Bula (Rukuruku) and Savurua’s founder, Dr. Lex Thomson. During this trek a highly unusual crimson red-flowered hibiscus was found by Arioka and collected south of Mount Tomuna. This Hibiscus was growing on a narrow ridge, adjacent to a disused walking track between Lovoni and Taviya Villages. This Hibiscus was morphologically similar to the earlier botanical collections of Hibiscus on Ovalau, especially the collection by Gillespie and is to be described as a new species. This will mean that Fiji will soon have four scientifically recognised endemic Hibiscus species.

Arioka (L) & Sanaila (R) with the new Hibiscus

Amato with the double form of new Hibiscus

Photo: Box Pauliasi

Double form of new Hibiscus species growing in mountain range above Levuka

Photo: Box Pauliasi

Several subsequent attempts to reach Vei Senitoa by the three-person Fijian team led by Bobo Ahtack, including during the third visit (23-26 July 2017) were hampered due to damage to tracks and the forested landscape wrought by Tropical Cyclone Winston. Bobo reported that Vei Senitoa has been obliterated by extensive landslides during TC Winston, and that the Hibiscus is no longer present at this location. Bobo’s team located a further seven plants of the crimson red-flowered hibiscus in the same locality as the earlier find in June. Interviews during the third visit with local informants, including the former Chief of Taviya Village and senior students from St John’s College, Cawaci, indicated that the crimson red-flowered Hibiscus occurs sporadically at higher elevations in the interior of north-eastern Ovalau. The double-petalled variant which was collected by Edwin Bryan in 1924 was re-collected by Amato Pauliasi (Baba Settlement) on a ridge west of Ovalau on 25 July 2017.

‘Fiji White’ cultivar of new species in Okinawa, Japan Photo: Chigira Osamu

The new species is related to other Fijian species, including H. storckii, but morphologically distinctive in its floral form: spirally-arranged, narrow petals, overlapping near their base to form a  ± funnel-shaped corolla, and erect style branches; and also in its floral pigmentation, including burgundy-crimson red petals with dark pink stigma pads. The new species shares floral and foliar traits with the Mauritian species, Hibiscus genevii, and may constitute an ancestral species for Lilibiscus species in the South Pacific islands.

The new species is critically endangered in the wild: the main threat comes from extreme tropical cyclones and associated forest destruction and landslides, as well as environmentally invasive weeds.

Lighter-coloured cultivars of the new species are known in cultivation, including the one called ‘Fiji White’ in Japan and USA.