Ma‘o hau hele is a yellow-flowered hibiscus endemic to the Hawaiian Islands and is the Hawai‘i state flower. It is perhaps fitting that it is also an endangered species considering that Hawai‘i is regarded as the endangered species capital of the US. The problem is that ma‘o hau hele populations in the wild are unable to persist in the face of habitat loss to development and introduced predators like deer and goats. The plant is easy to grow from seeds or cuttings. Our subspecies here (subsp. brackenridgei), occurs naturally on Lāna‘i, Moloka‘i, Maui, and Hawai‘i islands.

This hibiscus grows as a bush or small tree, tends to be short-lived (about four years in the wild), and is easily toppled by strong winds. Toppled trees will root where the branches meet the ground, resulting in the plant traveling from its original place. So what does Ma‘o hau hele mean? Ma‘o alludes to the Hawaiian cotton plant or Ma‘o, another hibiscus, the flowers of which are also yellow. Hau may refer to yet another hibiscus with yellowish flowers or allude to the somewhat unpleasant stiff hairs on the stem of this plant. And hele means to walk or move.