Myrsine juddii is a rare species of flowering plant in the myrsine family

Myrsinaceae

Myrsinaceae, or the Myrsine family, is a rather large family from the order Ericales. It consists of 35 genera and about 1000 species....

 known by the common name cloudswept colicwood. It is endemic to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, where it is known only from the Koolau Mountains of Oahu

Oahu

Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...

. There is a single population made up of about 3000 individuals. Like other Hawaiian Myrsine this plant is called kōlea. It is a federally listed endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 of the United States.

This is a shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 with a branching stem reaching 1 to 2 meters tall. Flowers occur in clusters along the branches. It grows in wet forests on mountain ridges in the cloud zone.

The plant is threatened by the loss and degradation of its habitat, mainly due to the presence of feral pigs and non-native plants

Introduced species

An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

. Some of the plant's habitat is on military territory and it may be threatened by military activity.