Delissea fallax Hillebr. (1888:251)

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Conservation Status

Missing (Fosberg & Herbst, 1975:14 [as "prEX"]; Wood et al., 2019; NatureServe, 2026) or Extinct (WCMC, 1992:216; Wagner et al., 1999:27; Humphreys et al., 2019; Albani Rocchetti et al., 2022; POWO, 2024; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2025; Wagner et al., 2026:26)

Last record: 1865 (Wood et al., 2019); 1872 (Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2025); 1800's (NatureServe, 2026)

This species has been identified as one of the 50 best candidates for de-extinction, ranking 40/50 (Albani Rocchetti et al., 2022).

Distribution & Habitat

Hawaii (=Big Island), Hawaiian Islands, USA

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

Media

References

Original scientific description:

Hillebrand, W. F. (1888). Flora of the Hawaiian Islands: a description of their phanerogams and vascular cryptogams. Facsimile ed., 1981. Lubrecht & Cramer, Monticello, NY. 673 pp.

Other references:

Albani Rocchetti, Giulia, Carta, Angelino, Mondoni, Andrea, Godefroid, Sandrine, Davis, Charles C., Caneva, Giulia, Albrecht, Matthew A., Alvarado, Karla, Bijmoer, Roxali, Borosova, Renata, Bräuchler, Christian, Breman, Elinor, Briggs, Marie, Buord, Stephane, Cave, Lynette H., Da Silva, Nílber Gonçalves, Davey, Alexandra H., Davies, Rachael M., Dickie, John B., Fabillo, Melodina, Fleischmann, Andreas, Franks, Andrew, Hall, Geoffrey, Kantvilas, Gintaras, Klak, Cornelia, Liu, Udayangani, Medina, Leopoldo, Reinhammar, Lars Gunnar, Sebola, Ramagwai J., Schönberger, Ines, Sweeney, Patrick, Voglmayr, Hermann, White, Adam, Wieringa, Jan J., Zippel, Elke Zippel and Abeli, Thomas. (2022). Selecting the best candidates for resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants from herbaria. Nature Plants 8: 1385-1393. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01296-7 [Supplementary Tables S1-S6]

Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2023). Uitgestorven. Op plantenjacht rond de wereld: 1-511. Sterck & De Vreese.

Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2025). Plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 207(3): 183-196. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae045 [Appendix S1]

Fosberg, F. R. and Herbst, Derral R. (1975). Rare and endangered species of Hawaiian vascular plants. Allertonia 1(1): 1-72 [14]. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23189952

Govaerts, R. (2000). World Checklist of Seed Plants Database in ACCESS D: 1-30141.

Humphreys, Aelys M., Govaerts, Rafaël, Ficinski, Sarah Z., Lughadha, Eimear Nic and Vorontsova, Maria S. (2019). Global dataset shows geography and life form predict modern plant extinction and rediscovery. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 1043-1047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0906-2 [Supplementary Dataset 1]

NatureServe. (2026). Delissea fallax: Hawai`i Delissea. NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer [web application]. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available at: https://explorer.natureserve.org/ [Accessed on 22 August 2026]

POWO. (2024). Plants of the World Online (online resource). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 25 August 2024]

Wagner, Warren L., Bruegmann, Marie M., Herbst, Derral M. and Lau, Joel Q. C. (1999). Hawaiian Vascular Plants at Risk: 1999. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 60: 1-58.

Wagner, Warren L., Herbst, D. and Sohmer, S. (1990). Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'I 1-2: 1-1853. University of Hawaii Press.

Wagner, Warren L., Khan, Nancy R., Lorence, David H., Flynn, Timothy W. and Wood, Kenneth R. (2026). Checklist of native and naturalized Hawaiian vascular plants. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 123: i-xii + 1-96, 3 tables. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.32124043

Walter, Kerry S. and Gillett, Harriet J. (eds.). (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Gland, Switzerland & Cambridge, UK: IUCN – The World Conservation Union. lxiv + 862 pp.

WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre). (1992). Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's living resources. London: Chapman & Hall. xx + 594 pp.

Wood, Kenneth R., Oppenheimer, Hank and Keir, Matthew. (2019). A checklist of endemic Hawaiian vascular plant taxa that are considered possibly extinct in the wild. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Technical Report #314.

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