04/05/23 – CELEBRATING RECENT REDISCOVERIES AND REBOUNDS FOR NATIVE …

JOSH GREEN, M.D. GOVERNOR DAWN CHANG CHAIRPERSON For Immediate Release:  April 5, 2023 CELEBRATING RECENT REDISCOVERIES AND REBOUNDS FOR NATIVE PLANTS IN HAWAIʻI April Proclaimed as Native Hawaiian Plant Month by Governor GreenTo view video please click on photo or view at this link: https://vimeo.com/814868026 (HONOLULU) – Governor Josh Green, M.D. has proclaimed April as Native Hawaiian Plant Month, recognizing the diversity and biocultural value of roughly 1,400 native plant species. Native Hawaiian Plant Month also provides an opportunity to celebrate the successes made by rare plant botanists, who manage more than 420 endangered plant species statewide. The Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP), a collaboration of the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), University of Hawaiʻi, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released an annual report detailing a series of rediscoveries and rebounds in rare plant populations across the archipelago. Several plant species previously thought extinct were rediscovered through field surveys last year. Rapelling botanists found a small shrub, Silene lanceolata, in Waimea Canyon on Kauaʻi. On Maui, a sedge known as Cyperus prescottianus had not been seen for more than 100 years, but was rediscovered along a stream bank. Other species that have been present in low
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