[3] New populations of this species, usually consisting of only a handful of individuals each, are still rarely found in the wild at widely scattered locations in windward native forests, at around 5000–6000 feet elevation.

There has been widespread outplanting of hundreds of nursery-raised cyanea shipmanii in recent years, but the genetic diversity of these outplantings is very low due to the small number of original wild plants they are descended from.

[4] This Hawaiian lobelioid is a fragile sparingly branched shrub which can reach four meters in height.

The leaves are deeply divided and subdivided with many tiny lobes, resembling the fronds of ferns.

The natural habitat of the plant is moist native forests on well-developed volcanic soils.