Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_lycium_carolinianum
ʻŌhelo Kai
Lycium carolinianum
Open this record in the interactive AtlasAbout ʻŌhelo Kai
The Hawaiian form, historically Lycium sandwicense, is a low spreading shrub with stiff pale-barked branches and small fleshy spoon-shaped leaves with rounded tips and smooth margins. Solitary leaf-axil flowers are whitish, bluish or pink, with short tubes and four spreading lobes. Small rounded succulent berries ripen red. This native shrub is a component of Hawaiian vegetation. Monitoring mature plants, new recruits and occupied cover can assess persistence and replacement. The reviewed accounts do not establish a measured Kauaʻi population trend or quantify an ecosystem effect.
Kauaʻi evidence
Generated media is not occurrence evidence. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Lycium carolinianum
- Hawaiian names
- ʻōhelo kai · ʻaeʻae · ʻākulikuli ʻaeʻae · ʻākulikuli kai · ʻākulikuli ʻōhelo
- Other names
- Lycium carolinianum · ʻōhelo kai · ʻaeʻae · ʻākulikuli ʻaeʻae · ʻākulikuli kai · ʻākulikuli ʻōhelo
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Indigenous
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only. Represent the Hawaiian sandwicense form within the accepted species, rather than importing mainland morphological variation.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Not yet assessed
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or subshrub; subshrub or shrub
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Occupied area and vegetation cover; Mature plants and new recruits; Reproductive plants and fruiting frequency. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
- Data gaps
- Current island extent and population trend · Measured local ecological effects
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- The Hawaiian form, historically Lycium sandwicense, is a low spreading shrub with stiff pale-barked branches and small fleshy spoon-shaped leaves with rounded tips and smooth margins. Solitary leaf-axil flowers are whitish, bluish or pink, with short tubes and four spreading lobes. Small rounded succulent berries ripen red. This native shrub is a component of Hawaiian vegetation. Monitoring mature plants, new recruits and occupied cover can assess persistence and replacement. The reviewed accounts do not establish a measured Kauaʻi population trend or quantify an ecosystem effect.