There are currently seven accepted species of loulu that call the Island of Kauai home.  Before the year 2007 came to an end, there were eight species.  Pritchardia limahuliensis is no longer an accepted species, but the other species endemic to Kauai are:  Pritchardia flynnii, P. hardyi, P. minor, P. napaliensis, P. perlmanii, P. viscosa, and P. waialealeana.

Pritchardia flynnii, grows along mountain ridges at elevations of 2300 feet.  It is a medium sized palm resembling Pritchardia hardyi with a trunk up to 25 feet in height, a crown with 10 to 26 leaves.  The leaf blades are small, less than 3 feet long and densely covered beneath with pale brown or grey scales.  The species has smooth ovoid-ellipsoid fruits which are purple black when ripe.  The fruit are 3/4 inch long by 1/2 inch wide when dry.  This species was discovered in 1999 and described by Lorence and Gemmill in 2004.  There are only 350 to 400 individuals left in habitat;  they are considered threatened.

Pritchardia hardyi, Maui Nui Botanical Garden, Kahului, Maui

Pritchardia hardyi grows in wet rain forest at elevations below 2000 feet.  The epithet is a Latinized  form of the surname “Hardy” which commemorates the original collector.

The trunk of this species grows to a height of 80 feet or more; it is 1 foot in diameter.  The leaf crown is spherical or nearly so, and the stiff 3 foot-wide leaves are large semicircles of dark green; the underleaf displays  a golden tomentum.  The leaves are flat and the costa does not extend much into the blade; they tend to fold in down both sides of the blade as they age.  The inflorescences are long and extend well out of the crown.  The fruit are medium to small ellipsoid to obovoid and purplish black in color.

This fast growing species is among the finest looking palms in the genus.  They are distributed in wet forest on the slopes of Mount Waialeale near and along the Power Line Trail in east central Kauai at elevations of 1500 to 2500 feet.

Pritchardia minor, Wahiawa Botanical Garden, Wahiawa, Oahu

Pritchardia minor is endemic to wet, mountainous rain forest and on exposed steep slopes in the vicinity of Kalalau Valley on the Island of Kauai.  It grows at elevations of 1000 to 4500 feet.  The epithet is Latin for “smaller”.

The species’s slender trunk grows to a height of 20 feet; it has an attractive, small, spherical and dense crown.  The leaves are 2 feet wide, light green, semicircular with stiff pleated blades and short wide segments on short, stout petioles.

This has to be one of the world’s most beautiful small palms; it appears to be in perfect proportion.

Pritchardia napaliensis, Kahanu Garden, Honomaele, Hana, Maui

Pritchardia napaliensis is endemic to the northern coastal and cliff area of the island as is Pritchardia limahuliensis.  Both species are considered endangered.  They are quite stunning trees that come from a mesic  (not-too-dry-not-too-wet) habitat where they are congeners intermingled with other Pritchardia gems.  With the paring down of the many Hawaiian species in the genus Pritchardia, it is not clear what the current status is for this species.

The unique quality noticeable in this specimen is the clustering of inflorescence bracts around the bases of the leaf petioles.  This tree did not have blossoming flowers or fruits.  It was quite recently that the garden labeled this tree.  It is the only specimen of this species in the Kahanu Garden collection.

Pritchardia perlmannii is endemic to the moist lowland forest of Waioli Valley.  Fewer than 500 individuals are scattered in the habitat.  The species was assessed by Gemmill in 1998.  Regeneration is poor because of seed predation by rats and pigs.

Pritchardia viscosa is an endangered species endemic to the low mountainous rain forests of the island.  There were only three individuals left in habitat in 1998.  The epithet is Latin for “viscous”, an allusion to the texture of the inflorescences.

The trunk of this species grows to 20 feet in height and has a diameter of 8 inches; it has one of the more slender trunks for the genus.  The leaf crown is open and nearly spherical with 40 inch-wide semi-circular leaves whose segments extend 1 foot into the blade.  They are stiff and on-pendent, even in older leaves.  Leaf color is glossy and light, grassy green above and beautiful silvery green beneath.

In 1992, Hurricane Iniki caused a decline in the population.  The current threat to the species in its natural habitat is seed predation by rats, pigs and humans.

Pritchardia waialealeana is endemic to the wet mountainous rain forest at an elevation  of 1500 to 2600 feet.  The epithet is Latin for “of Waialeale“, a mountain in the palm’s native habitat.

This is a tall robust species.  It has the widest trunk by far at 38 inches in diameter (more than double that of P. glabrata); it grows to a height of 100 feet.  The leaf crown is massive, dense and spherical with short inflorescences.  The leaves are 40 inches wide, semicircular and mounted on large 2 foot-long petioles.  The blade is flat and the segments extend into the blade to two thirds its depth; they are stiff when young but become lax and pendent with age.

This palm’s capacity to regenerate in the native habitat is also threatened with seed predation by rats.

My efforts to photograph the different species of loulu falls quite short for the Island of Kauai, home to the most species of Pritchardia at this point.  My plan is to continue with this quest until I have photographed all of the Hawaiian species.  My photographs are of cultivated specimens for the specific reason that they often do not mirror the appearance of the species in its native habitat.  So, though I have provided the written descriptions of the individual species as they appear in the habitat, the photos may not follow the descriptions accurately.