Stickybud pritchardia

The Essence

"Pritchardia viscosa is a Critically Endangered fan palm restricted to the windward side of Kaua'i, Hawai'i. Joseph Rock described it in 1921 from a collection he had made in Kalihiwai Valley the previous year, and it was not seen again for some seventy years — until 1990, when naturalist John Obata and National Tropical Botanical Garden botanist Ken Wood observed it in the same general area as Rock's type locality, off the Powerline Road. That rediscovered group held one juvenile and two mature plants; Hurricane 'Iniki destroyed three further plants of the population in 1992, which USFWS records as half of the known individuals. The 2020 IUCN assessment puts it in a single location with three mature individuals, all in one subpopulation, and notes that the fewer than 50 individuals that remain are wholly confined to that one subpopulation; the Palm Specialist Group likewise states that only three individuals remain in the wild. The species is unmistakable within its genus: the Palm Specialist Group calls it the only member of Pritchardia whose flowers and buds — calyx and corolla — are covered in a thick viscous coating as if varnished, with rachillae that are glabrous and viscous, while Hodel (2007) writes that the viscous panicles and flowers alone are diagnostic. IUCN lists the current threats as seed predation by rats, pigs and humans together with competition from invasive introduced plants including Psidium cattleianum (strawberry guava), Paspalum conjugatum (Hilo grass) and Clidemia hirta; the Palm Specialist Group adds that introduced deer, goats and pigs reduce seedlings by grazing and uprooting them. USFWS records that at least one of the three remaining trees was damaged by spiked boots used by a botanist or seed collector to scale it and collect seed or reference material, and the Palm Specialist Group describes that stem damage as permanent. IUCN calls it a charismatic palm subject to illegal collection of seeds and records that one juvenile individual was dug up illegally, causing a decline in the population. Hawai'i's Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife maintains a fenced exclosure around two individuals and metal rat guards around their stems, and ex situ collections of known wild origin are held at botanic gardens on Kaua'i and O'ahu."

Described by Joseph Rock in 1921 in Beccari and Rock's monographic study of the genus Pritchardia (Memoirs of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum 8: 1–77, the name itself on p. 66), based on his own 1920 collection from Kalihiwai Valley — the only known gathering for the next seventy years. The species was listed as Endangered under the US Endangered Species Act in the USFWS final rule of 10 October 1996 covering nineteen plant species from the island of Kaua'i, effective 12 November 1996. That rule expressly declined to designate critical habitat for the nineteen taxa, but listing automatically invoked listing under Hawai'i state law, which prohibits taking of listed plants; the 2020 IUCN assessment states that the species now has a recovery plan and designated critical habitat and cannot be collected, sold, shipped or grown without a state permit. The Palm Specialist Group notes that Pritchardia is the only member of the palm family native to Hawai'i, with 23 known single-island endemic species, giving Hawai'i the richest palm diversity in terms of species in the United States.