Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_cinchona_calisaya
Yellow Cinchona
Cinchona calisaya
Open this record in the interactive Atlas
About Yellow Cinchona
Yellow Cinchona (Cinchona calisaya) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native to wet-tropical montane forest from central Peru to central Bolivia. The forestry ledger used the synonym Cinchona ledgeriana and documents a 1945 Kauaʻi planting; survival, reproduction, and any present population are unconfirmed.
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 200 plants under Cinchona ledgeriana across 1 entries dated 1945. 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
- Cinchona calisaya
- Common names
- Yellow Cinchona · Calisaya
- Other names
- Cinchona calisaya · Yellow cinchona · Calisaya · Cinchona ledgeriana
- 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
- Tubular flowers require animal pollination, and dry capsules release many winged seeds that can travel on air currents. Kauaʻi flowering, pollinators, seed viability, and recruitment are unknown.
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- 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
- Yellow Cinchona (Cinchona calisaya) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native to wet-tropical montane forest from central Peru to central Bolivia. The forestry ledger used the synonym Cinchona ledgeriana and documents a 1945 Kauaʻi planting; survival, reproduction, and any present population are unconfirmed.