Family: Onagraceae
Fuchsia magellanica (hummingbird fuchsia, kulapepeiao) is a deciduous shrub native to southern South America. Fuchsia magellanica is widely grown by gardeners as an ornamental plant. It has been used in traditional medicine as a diuretic and antipyretic. This plant is widely cultivated throughout the world and naturalized in parts of South America, east Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, and the islands of Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, and Maui. This plant is highly invasive on the La Réunion islands in the Indian Ocean, where it forms dense tangled thickets which shade out understory plants. Its ability to adapt to high elevation areas gives it potential to invade a wider range in the Hawaiian Islands. Locally, it has also invaded wet forest habitat, posing a threat to native vegetation.
High Risk Traits:
- Broad elevation range and climate suitability
- Naturalized in several locations worldwide, including the Hawaiian Islands of Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii
- A disturbance-adapted shrub with negative environmental impacts, particularly in La Réunion (Mascarene Islands, Indian Ocean) and Australia
- Other Fuchsia species are invasive.
- Tolerates many soil types.
- Scrambles over other shrubs and small trees, impeding their growth.
- Forms dense thickets.
- Reproduces by seeds, and vegetatively by suckering and stem layering.
- Hybridizes with other Fuchsia species.
- Self-compatible, capable of producing seeds from self-pollination.
- Seeds dispersed by birds, other frugivorous animals, water, and intentionally by people.
- Stem fragments spread by water and in garden waste.
- Able to resprout after cutting unless treated with herbicide.
Low Risk Traits:
- Unarmed (no spines, thorns, or burrs)
- Palatable to browsing animals.
- Non-toxic
- Shade intolerant (dense shade may limit spread)
- Herbicides may provide effective control.
