From Common Forest Trees of Hawaii

ʻĀlaʻa
Planchonella sandwicensis
Bully family (Sapotaceae)

Native species ()

Medium-sized native tree of dry forests mainly, with milky sap, recognized by the bronze or reddish brown lower surfaces of the leathery oblong or elliptical leaves. To 50 ft (15 ) high and 16 inches (0.4 ) in trunk diameter. Bark gray, thick, fissured to furrowed; inner bark orange with dark red outer layer, gritty and slightly bitter, with milky sap. Twigs with minute pressed brown hairs when young, with raised half-round leaf scars.


©2003 Forest And Kim Starr
Leaves with leaf-stalks 3⁄4–1 1⁄4 inches (2–4 ) long, finely brown hairy. Blades oblong or elliptical, 2 1⁄2–5 1⁄2 inches (6–14 ) long and 1 1⁄4–2 1⁄2 inches (3–6 ) wide, thick and leathery, rounded at short-pointed at base, not on edges, with many fine straight parallel side veins almost at right angle with slightly sunken upper surface shiny green and nearly hairless, lower surface dull with bronze or reddish brown pressed hairs or becoming nearly hairless.

Flowers 1–4 at base of leaf on straight or curved brown hairy stalks of about 3⁄4 inch (2 ), bell-shaped, about 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long. of five broad rounded light brown hairy with short tube and five broad rounded light green and hairless; five short attached within tube and and five small sterile (staminodia) in notches; and with hairy conical five-celled and short

() elliptical, rounded, or pear-shaped, 1 1⁄4–1 1⁄2 inches (3–4 ) long, yellow, orange, or purplish black, dry. Seeds 1–5, about 3⁄4 inch (2 ) long, elliptical and flattened, with long scar, shiny yellow brown.

Wood yellow with black streaks, hard, straight grained, and with faint growth rings. Formerly used for house construction, o‘o (digging sticks), and spears.

The milky sap was used by the Hawaiians as birdlime for catching small birds.

Dry forests mainly, in dry gulches to moist ridges at 600–4000 ft (182–1219 ) elevation throughout the islands.

Special areas
Kokee, Wahiawa

Champion
Height 38 ft (11.6 ), c.b.h. 5.3 ft (1.6 ), spread 29 ft (8.8 ). Puuwaawaa, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (1968).

Range
Hawaiian Islands only

Other common names
kaulu, āulu

Botanical
Sideroxylon sandwicense (Gray) Benth. & Hook. f., Pouteria sandwicensis (Gray) Baehni & Deg., P. puulupensis Baehni & Deg., Pouteria auahiense Rock, P. ceresolii (Rock) Fosberg, P. rhynchosperma (Rock) Fosberg, P. spathulata (Hillebr.) Fosberg.

This species, treated here as the only Hawaiian representative of its includes five or more variations formerly accepted as species.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

The botanical term "berry" is different from common usage. Strawberries and raspberries are not berries. But a tomatoe is. A true berry is a fruit with the seeds immersed in the pulp.

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.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.