Bonamia menziesii – Always or recently rare?

    Bonamia menziesii is rare, very rare. The US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) listed B. menziesii as an endangered species in 1994 with an estimated total population of approximately 200 plants in 28 populations on five islands: Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Lāna‘i, Maui, and Hawai‘i. In 1999 when the recovery plan was written, the total population estimate was dramatically increased to be “in the thousands” from 31 to 44 populations on the same five islands with the overwhelming majority being on Kaua‘i. However, by 2003 (the next USFWS 5-year review), the total number of plants was estimated to be less than 166 in 37 populations statewide. And, in 2013 (the last USFWS 5-year review to date), the statewide estimate was again revised downward to a total of approximately 150 plants. 

    Unfortunately, I have only found one reference regarding how common or rare B. menziesii was before 1994. This is in Flora of the Hawaiian Islands by William Hillebrand (1888), page 318, where the species is referred to as “very rare” in West Maui by Remy. (If you have any other references, please contact me so I can update this webpage.) Making my task even more difficult is the fact that there is no known Hawaiian name for B. menziesii. So, was B. menziesii a common vine in ancient times, but its name was lost like so many other things Hawaiian? Or, was B. menziesii always rare, and, therefore, Hawaiians never gave it a specific name, but simply referred to it generically as lā‘au hihi (vine)?

    While my initial question, “Bonamia menziesii – Always or recently rare?”, is an interesting one, the question itself suggests, perhaps, a more important second question, “Should the recovery plan for an endangered plant that was always rare be the same as the recovery plan for an endangered plant that was once common?”