DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
- scales stiff
- scales at base of frond stems reddish brown to purplish brown, sometimes yellowish brown
- always with reddish brown to almost black, straight stiff hairs on stipe extending well into blade
- underside of blade dull green, almost as dark as upper surface
TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN USES
- starchy core eaten as starvation food
- pulu (scales on frond) used to absorb body fluids prior to burial
- trunk hollowed to cultivate uhi (yams)
- used medicinally as “blood purifier”, appetite stimulant and for chest pains
HAWAIIAN RAIN FOREST ECOLOGY
- more common at lower elevations, hāpu`u `i`i much less common in Niaulani than hāpu`u pulu, but more abundant than meu tree fern
- protected from logging and pigs, more common in Niaulani than in surrounding disturbed, second growth forests of Volcano
- very few epiphytes on hāpu`u `i`i except for an occasional `ōlapa in old frond bases; few moss mats on straight trunks of hāpu`u `i`i
- does not “walk” as well as hāpu`u pulu
- trunks straight, rarely leaning
- after falling, does not recover rapidly from fronds at the former top of the trunk; recovers from along the stem
SAY IT IN HAWAIIAN!
Hawaiian Rain Forest 