DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
- most abundant large tree fern in Niaulani
- trunks up to 15-20 feet tall with surface of trunk tightly woven dark roots or former frond bases
- frond base covered with dense mats of soft, silky yellowish brown hairs and scales (pulu)
- patches of pulu on trunks cover buds of small fiddleheads
- undersides of frond blade whitish-green
TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN USES
- starchy core eaten as starvation food
- pulu used to absorb body fluids prior to burial
- some reports of pulu being used to stuff pillows and mattresses but others find no evidence of this
- trunk hollowed to cultivate uhi (yams)
- used medicinally as “blood purifier”, apettite stimulant, and for chest pains and other ailments
HAWAIIAN RAIN FOREST ECOLOGY
- survived four decades of kahili ginger because fronds overtopped ginger canopy
- most common host for epiphytic `ōhi`a, `ōlapa, kāwa`u, and kōlea trees
- most important nurse log in forest, once moss cover develops on surface of fallen trunks
- seedling establishment of native trees inhibited in areas of Niaulani with dense tree fern canopy; mostly on nurse logs or as epiphytes
- hāpu`u pulu tree fern strongly influence forest floor
- vegetation, reduce light, create long-lasting thick litter on forest floor, and drop heavy fronds that injure seedlings
- tree ferns unnaturally dense? Survived kahili ginger invasion that reduced its native plant competitors, and poised to recover rapid once ginger removed
- older hāpu`u pulu with leaning trunks fall over and resprout from top of trunk or pulu covered buds on side of trunk
SAY IT IN HAWAIIAN!
Hawaiian Rain Forest 