From Common Forest Trees of Hawaii

Olopua
Nestegis sandwicensis
Ash/Privet family (Oleaceae)

Native species ()

This medium-sized tree is common in dry forests through the islands. It has paired elliptical or lance-shaped leaves, small yellowish green flowers clustered at leaf bases, and small green turning to bluish black Usually a small tree of 20 ft (6 ) in height with short stout trunk to 8 inches (0.2 ) in diameter and rounded sometimes medium-sized to 66 ft (20 ) and 3 ft (0.9 ). Bark gray, rough, furrowed into ridges and plates; inner bark brown, dry, bitter. Twigs light gray or light brown with raised dots and paired raised half-round leaf-scars. Buds are scaly, pointed, gray, 1⁄8 inch (3 ) long, and finely hairy.


©2004 Forest And Kim Starr
Leaves hairless, with light yellow leaf-stalks of 1⁄4–1⁄2 inch (6–13 ). Blades elliptical or lance-shaped, 2 1⁄2–6 inches (6–15 ) long and 3⁄4–2 1⁄2 inches (2–6 ) wide, long- or short-pointed at short-pointed at base, straight or wavy at edges, slightly stiff and leathery, curved up on sides, above dull green or dark green with and few fine side veins yellowish, beneath dull light green.

Flower clusters () 1–2 inches (2.5–5 ) long at leaf bases, unbranched. Flowers several in pairs, short-stalked, less than 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long and broad, composed of four- minute green yellowish or whitish green more than 1⁄8 inch (3 ) long, deeply four- four attached on base of and with and with conical greenish two-celled short and two-

() egg-shaped, 1⁄2–7⁄8 inch (13–22 ) long, blunt at green turning to bluish black, slightly fleshy but becoming dry, the large stone single-seeded.

Sapwood is yellow and heartwood yellowish brown or dark brown with blackish streaks. Wood is fine-textured, very heavy, and very hard, with indistinct growth rings. It is very durable and takes a fine polish. Formerly used by the Hawaiians for tool handles such as adzes and as a rasp for fishhook manufacture. It was a preferred fuelwood because it gave a hot fire even when green. Not presently used.

This species is a favorite host for Hawaiian land snails.

Widespread through the islands, especially in dry forests, at 1000–4200 ft (305–1280 ) altitude.

Special areas
Kokee, Wahiawa, Volcanoes, Kipuka Puaulu

Champion
Height 54 ft (16.5 ), c.b.h. 10.2 ft (3.1 ), spread 31 ft (9.4 ). Hoomau Ranch, Honomolino, Hawaii (1968).

Range
Through the Hawaiian Islands, not known elsewhere.

Other common names
Hawaiian-olive, ulupua

Botanical
Osmanthus sandwicensis (Gray) Knobl.

This is the only native species of the olive family, Oleaceae. Several others are introduced.

Eleven tree species in this handbook commemorate the early English name for Hawaii, the Sandwich Islands. Six, including the olopua, were named by Asa Gray, U.S. botanist of Harvard University. Captain James Cook of the British Navy named the islands in 1778 in honor of John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, who had sponsored Cook’s expedition.

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

cm -- A centimeter which is about 0.4 inches.

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

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

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

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.

midrib -- The central and most prominent vein of a leaf or leaf-like thing.

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

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.

A raceme is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along its axis.

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.

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

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

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.

drupe -- A fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a hardened shell containing a seed. A peach is a drupe. A raspberry is composed of drupelets.

canopy -- The foliage of a tree; the crown. Also the upper layer of a forest.

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.

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

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

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.