From Common Forest Trees of Hawaii

Lama
Diospyros hillebrandii
Persimmons family (Ebenaceae)

Native species ()

This species of lama is confined to Oahu and Kauai. It has large dark green leaves which have a network of fine veins on the upper surface and also the are short-pointed. The pink flushes of new foliage on red twigs over a tree are showy.


Keoki Stender
A small tree to 30 ft (9 ) high and 5 inches (13 ) in trunk diameter, with horizontal branches. Bark blackish gray, smoothish; Inner bark is light brown, slightly bitter. Twigs gray, hairless, with raised dots. Buds about 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long, of spreading pointed nearly hairless

Leaves in two rows, hairless, with short leaf-stalks less than 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long. Blades oblong, 3–6 inches (7.5–15 ) long and 1 1⁄4–2 1⁄2 inches (3–6 ) wide, blunt at rounded at base, not on edges, slightly thickened, the upper surface shiny dark green with a prominent network of fine veins when dry, the lower surface dull light green.

Flowers male and female on different plants (), single and stalkless at leaf bases, 3⁄8 inch (10 ) long with overlapping at base. Male flowers have green narrow tubular of 1⁄4 inch (6 ) with three short-pointed hairy at end, tubular bell-shaped pink hairy with three spreading and nine short Female flowers have and with a hairy and three-forked

(berries) elliptical, 3⁄4–1 inch (20–25 ) long, slightly curved on 1 side and widest beyond middle, hairy toward blunt with point from orange, and at base the enlarged 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long with 3 short-pointed nearly dry, edible but insipid. Seeds are elliptical, 5⁄8 inch (15 ) long, shiny brown black.

Sapwood is whitish yellow (heartwood color unknown), hard, similar in appearance and use to D. ferrea.

Scattered in wet forests of Koolau and Waianae Ranges of Oahu to 2000 ft (610 ) altitude. In mountains near Honolulu and not uncommon on Kauai at Kokee and in Kipu Range.

Special area
Wahiawa

Range
Oahu and Kauai only

Other common name
ēlama

Botanical
Maba hillebrandii Seem.

This species honors William Hillebrand (1831-86), German-born physician and botanist, who lived in Honolulu for 20 years. His classic “Flora of the Hawaiian Islands” (1888) remains a very useful reference a century later.

An evergreen tree retains a large portion of its green leaves all year.

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

style -- This is a long and thread-like structure that connects the stigma with the ovary. A flower may have a single style, or several of them.

scale -- A very small leaf around a dormant bud. Also other things that might remind one of fish scales on the surface of ferns, stems and the like.

synonym -- In botany a synonym is a species name that at one time was thought to be the correct name for a plant but was later found to be incorrect and has been replaced by a new name.

cm -- A centimeter which is about 0.4 inches.

The apex is the tip or the furthest point from the attachment.

lobe -- Rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ). Lobes bulge out about 1/4 of the leaf diameter.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

m -- A meter is about 10% larger than a yard.

A pistil is the female structure of many flowers. It contains one or more carpels. Each carpel contins an ovary, style and stigma. The stigma receives the pollen which grows thru the style to reach the ovary.

mm -- millimeter. About 1/25th of an inch.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

An ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower. Above the ovary is the style and the stigma, which is where the pollen lands and germinates to grow down through the style to the ovary.

dioecious -- When male and female reproductive structures are on separate plants.

endemic -- when restricted to a certain country or area.