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Geraniaceae family

Hinahina Geranium cuneatum

Native Specialist-bee host

Hinahina is a perennial shrub native to Hawaii. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

More about this plant

Geranium cuneatum, or silver geranium, is a medium alpine shrub endemic to the islands of Hawai'i and Maui, where it grows in high elevation shrubland near or above the treeline. Like other geraniums native to Hawai'i, it is known as hinahina in Hawaiian. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~24 caterpillar species

Geranium supports ~24 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus.

Recorded feeding on Geranium in North America, including:

Amblyptilia pica · Geranium Plume Moth Amphipyra tragopoginis · Mouse Moth Anavitrinella pampinaria · Common Gray Apamea devastator · Glassy Cutworm Arachnis picta · Painted Tiger Moth Archips purpurana · leafroller moth
+ 8 more species →
Argyrotaenia citrana · leafroller moth Argyrotaenia velutinana · Red-Banded Leafroller Carmenta giliae · clearwing moth Choristoneura rosaceana · Oblique-Banded Leafroller Epinotia ruidosana · leafroller moth Euproctis chrysorrhoea · tussock moth Helicoverpa zea · Corn Earworm Heliothis oregonica · Oregon Gem
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Geranium is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (12) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[09] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)
[10] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[11] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[12] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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