Rediscovery and assessment of Stenogyne sherffii Degener (Lamiaceae)

Stenogyne sherffii O.. Degener from the Ko'olau Mountains, O'ahu, Hawaiian Islands, was treated as synonymous with the more common species from the Wa i'anae Mountains, S. kaalae Wawra, in the most recent revision of the genus by Weller and Sakai in 1990. A single population of about five plants of t his entity was rediscovered in 1994. A plant was propagated from a stem cut ting in the greenhouse at the University of California, Irvine. Comparison to plants of S. kaalae grown in the same greenhouse and herbarium material shows that the rare Ko'olau plants are distinct in several characters, espe cially subentire vs. serrate leaves. We here recognize this taxon as a subs pecies of S. kaalae because of the clear species synapomorphy of very dark maroon corolla color and the geographical separation of the two taxa.