Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_bixa_orellana
Annatto
Bixa orellana
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About Annatto
Annatto (Bixa orellana) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native from Mexico through tropical South America and associated with wet tropical vegetation and cultivated landscapes. The Kauaʻi forestry location index places it within the 1910–1960 planting program but gives no species-specific planting year; the source does not confirm persistence or naturalization.
Kauaʻi evidence
Taxonomic identity, tree form, diagnostic morphology and island occurrence use the linked reviewed sources. Historical planting, cultivation, naturalization and invasive status are separate. Generated imagery is not occurrence evidence. The 1918–1959 Kauaʻi reforestation working register records 36 plants under Bixa orellana across 1 entries dated 1927. These are recorded planting quantities, not counts of surviving trees, and they do not by themselves establish current persistence, naturalization, or ecological impact. Source: Kauaʻi Reforestation Plantings 1918–1959 working register (user-supplied; reconciled 6 October 2026).
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Bixa orellana
- Common names
- Annatto · Achiote · Lipstick tree
- Other names
- Bixa orellana · Annatto · Achiote · Lipstick tree
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-06
- Evidence limits
- Current survival on Kauaʻi, number of trees, occupied habitat, flowering or fruiting, recruitment, population trend, and ecological effects are all unconfirmed; no naturalization or invasive severity is inferred from the historical planting record.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Bisexual flowers require pollination, and dry capsules open to expose numerous coated seeds. Kauaʻi flowering, pollinators, seed movement, germination, and recruitment are unconfirmed.
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or small tree
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Not yet assessed
- Data gaps
- Current population extent and trajectory · Additional species-specific ecological and conservation sources
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- Annatto (Bixa orellana) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native from Mexico through tropical South America and associated with wet tropical vegetation and cultivated landscapes. The Kauaʻi forestry location index places it within the 1910–1960 planting program but gives no species-specific planting year; the source does not confirm persistence or naturalization.