Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_heliocarpus_americanus

White moho

Heliocarpus americanus

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About White moho

White moho (Heliocarpus americanus) is an introduced tree documented as naturalized on Kauaʻi by Bishop Museum’s 2025 checklist. Native from Mexico through tropical South America and introduced in Hawaiʻi. It is a fast-growing pioneer of clearings and disturbed moist to cloud forest in its native range; in Hawaiʻi, the Bishop Museum Plants of Hawaiʻi account reports cultivation and naturalization in disturbed forest. The 2025 island checklist documents naturalized presence on Kauaʻi, but it does not establish present abundance, range, or impact.

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 1,916 plants under Heliocarpus popayaensis across 3 entries dated 1927–1928. 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: Heliocarpus americanus
Common names: White moho · Moho
Other names: Heliocarpus americanus · White moho · Moho · Heliocarpus popayanensis · Heliocarpus americanus var. popayanensis
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: The checklist establishes documented naturalized presence, not current abundance, precise distribution, population trend, ecological impact, or management priority. No fine locality is published in this record.

Habitat and ecology

Habitats: Not yet assessed
Food and resource needs: Not yet assessed
Reproduction: Plants bear small bisexual and pistillate flowers in cymes. Capsules contain small seeds and carry long plumose bristles that support wind dispersal. Kauaʻi-specific flowering seasons, pollinators, seed viability, recruitment, and spread rate remain unassessed.
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: White moho (Heliocarpus americanus) is an introduced tree documented as naturalized on Kauaʻi by Bishop Museum’s 2025 checklist. Native from Mexico through tropical South America and introduced in Hawaiʻi. It is a fast-growing pioneer of clearings and disturbed moist to cloud forest in its native range; in Hawaiʻi, the Bishop Museum Plants of Hawaiʻi account reports cultivation and naturalization in disturbed forest. The 2025 island checklist documents naturalized presence on Kauaʻi, but it does not establish present abundance, range, or impact.

Sources and further reading

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