Hawaii Natural History

Solanaceae Nothocestrum latifolium

• Federally endangered!
•  Early Hawaiians used to finish off canoes and house construction
• Fruits sometimes eaten
• Medicinally used by pounding leaves, bark, and tap root, mixing with water, heating with hot rocks and cooled to treat abcesses

Agavaceae Pleomele forbesii

• Federally endangered!
•  Hawaiian name = Halapepe
• Endemic to Hawaii!
• Soft wood used by early Hawaiians to make idols and decorate alters
• Leaves also used in bathing and steam baths for chills, headaches, fever, and it was thought to stop burning temperatures
• Modern use = lei making

 

Urticaceae Pipturus albidus

• Hawaiian name = mamake, waimea
• Native Hawaiians beat the inner bark into fine kapa cloth
• Leaves and bark made into calming tea (still used today!)
• Endemic stingless nettle

Malvaceae Sida fallax

• Hawaiian name = ilima
• red/golden flower honored in song
• Queen Emma and Princess Kaiulani favored the ilima lei
• Also used by early Hawaiians medicinally
• chewing buds alleviates thirst and relieves birth pains 

 

Malvaceae Hibiscus kokio

• Hawaiian name = kokio
•  Native Hawaiian used as an invisibility aid
• dye from bark made nets and lines hard for fish to see underwater
•  Also used medicinally as a tonic for children

 

Myrtaceae Metrosideros polymorpha

• Hard wood used for kapa beaters, poi boards, spears and canoe gunwales
• Hawaiian name = Lehua, Ohia Lehua
• In ancient times, a lehua was the first and finest warrior sent into battle
• Native Hawaiians observed that on a barren lava flow, this was first tree to establish
• Can be a creeping shrub or tree
• Firework-burst flowers

Fabaceae Sesbania tomentosa

• Hawaiian name = ohai
• Increasingly rare in the wild (once common)
• Used to make leis
• Nitrogen fixer

Pittosporaceae Pittosporum hosmeri

• Candle Nut Tree
• Common plant
•  Hawaiian translation = "light" because seeds were burned due to high oil content
• Crushing the nuts and spreading them in small ponds helped increase visibility when spear fishing
• Also, roasted and eaten as a dish (inamona), but poisonous if eaten raw
• Oil from nuts treated surfboards by creating a protective coating similar to a stain

Fabaceae Acacia Koa

• Used for massive voyaging and fighting canoes
• Used the elepaio bird to check the health of koa trees (many insects then tree bad)

Malvaceae Hibiscus brackenridgei

• State Flower of Hawaii
•  Only 49 individuals left in the wild on Oahu
• Populations destroyed in 2007 fire
•  Grow on steep cliffs at high elevations
• Federally endangered!

 

—Grow on steep cliffs at high elevations

Nyctaginaceae Pisonia brunoniana

Nyctaginaceae Pisonia sandwicensis

Pittosporaceae Pittosporum argentifolium

Pittosporaceae Pittosporum confertiflorum

Pittosporaceae Pittosporum hosmeri

Pittosporaceae Pittosporum terminalioides

Agavaceae Pleomele aurea

Agavaceae Pleomele auwahiensis

Agavaceae Pleomele fernaldii

Agavaceae Pleomele forbesii