From Common Forest Trees of Hawaii


Leptecophylla tameiameiae
Heather family (Ericaceae)

Native species (indigenous)

Pukiawe is a large shrub or sometimes small tree when in the understory of wet forests. Common through the islands from low to high altitudes. Recognized by the small needle-like leaves whitish beneath, very small whitish flowers, and small round red, white, or pink


©2016 Forest And Kim Starr
A shrub of 3–10 ft (0.9–3 ), and in forests a small tree to 15 ft (4.6 ) high with twisted trunk to 5 inches (13 ) in diameter, with many spreading slender branches. Bark gray, finely fissured, becoming scaly and shaggy; inner bark thin, greenish, fibrous and slightly bitter. Twigs are very slender and wiry, finely hairy, pinkish when young, becoming brown, with tiny rounded raised leaf scars.

Leaves many, scattered and spreading along twig on tiny hairy yellowish leaf-stalks. Blades bent at right angle to twig, very narrow (linear to oblong), 1⁄4–1⁄2 inch (6–13 ) long and 1⁄8 inch (3 ) or less in width, sharp-pointed, rounded at base, turned under at edges, slightly thickened and stiff, hairless, upper surface dull green without visible veins, lower surface whitish, with many long fine nearly parallel veins.

Flowers few, single and almost stalkless at leaf bases, bell-shaped, 1⁄8 inch (3 ) long and and wide, composed of several overlapping at base; with five overlapping hairy green and pinkish tinged; white bell-shaped tubular with five spreading narrow pointed five tiny in notches of and with rounded short and dot

(berries) several at leaf bases, round, 3⁄16–1⁄4 inch (5–6 ) in diameter, red, pink, or white, slightly shiny, with at base and at slightly fleshy, mealy, tasteless or slightly astringent, becoming brown and dry. Seed or stone single, elliptical, brown, more than 1⁄8 inch (3 ) long.

Sapwood is light reddish brown and heartwood dark reddish brown. A fine-textured heavy wood of moderate hardness.

The wood was used for cremating bodies of outlaws. Also, according to Hawaiian historian David Malo, when a high ranking chief wanted to mingle with commoners, he would enter a smoke house and be smudged with smoke of pukiawe wood while a priest chanted a prayer for dispensation.

The bright beadlike served in Hawaiian garlands or leis.

Common and widespread from the understory of wet forests to the border of dry forest and exposed ridges and waste places, from near sea level to 10,600 ft (3231 ) or above. Of largest size in forests at 5000–6000 ft (1524–1829 ) and almost creeping in bogs. It is very common in Hawaii Volcanoes and Haleakala National Parks. In pastures and rangelands at higher altitudes classed as a weed of no forage value (Hasselwood and Motter 1966).

Special areas
Kokee, Haleakala, Volcanoes

Range
Through the six large Hawaiian Islands and in Marquesas Islands

Other common names
maiele, kāwa‘u, ‘a‘ali‘i-mahu, kawai, Kamehameha styphelia, Hawaiian heather, kānehoa, pūpūkiawe, puakiawe

Botanical
Styphelia tameiameiae (Cham. & Schlecht.) F. Muell., Styphelia douglasii (Gray) Skottsb.

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.

Irregular flowers, such as those of the violet or the pea, are often bilaterally symmeteric. These flowers typically have petals of unequal size or shape.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.

stigma - The tip of a pistil that receives the pollen.

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.

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.