Becky and I are traveling in Hawaii with our grandson Jack. You can see her post about Waikiki here. We are now on Kauai in the Princeville area.It is a beautiful part of the world.
One of the things that Jack wanted to do was to learn some about the endemic and indigenous plant species of Hawaii. Kauai is a good place to start that – it is called the “Garden Isle” for a reason. Plant life is lush and green almost everywhere you go. It is wet in many places, because the wettest spot on the planet, Mount Wai’ale’ale, is the summit of the island. This area receives an average of about 460 inches of rainfall per year.
A common indigenous lowland shrub is naupaka. Naupaka is characterized by large, soft, pliable bright green leaves and flowers that have petals on only one side. There are actually two common versions of naupaka on Kauai – kahakai and kuahiwi – beach naupaka and mountain naupaka. More on mountain naupaka later. Beach naupaka is commonly used as an ornamental shrub in landscaping. It is hardy and fast growing.
The naupaka flowers:
Another common indigenous lowland tree is kukui. Kukui is the state tree of Hawaii. The English common name for kukui is Candlenut. Native Hawaiians boiled the nuts to remove the waxy material, then used the wax for candles. Native Hawaiians also used the meat of the kukui nuts to make a relish called inamona. Inamona was used to season poke salad. A little inamona goes a long way, because it has laxative properties.
I don't remember seeing kukui in flower before:
A common indigenous vine of strand areas is po’hue’hue. Po’hue’hue has fairly large, thick, tough, bright green leaves – it is the only common vine in beach areas. The leaves are shaped like the cloven hoof of a goat, which gives the plant its specific epithet – pes-caprae. The English name for this plant is beach morning glory.
There are lots of exotic plant species in lowland, developed Hawaii, so many that it is almost impossible to know them all. Ironwood and Eucalyptus from Australia are common, as is Cook pine.
There are lots of hibiscus.
That’s enough for now. A post on more plants and birds is next.
Recent Comments