DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
- succulent perennial herbs mostly without hairs and usually with thick, red stems
- leaves attached opposite each other on stems, in pairs or whorls of three or four leaves along the stem
- underside of leaf often (but not always) red between the pale green veins
- flowers minute, clustered on narrow, round spikes less than three inches long
- two other species of `ala `ala wai nui found in Niaulani;Peperomia cookiana is similar, often with
red stems and leaves, cloaked in a mat of hairs; leaves of the much rarer P. membranaceum
mostly without hairs and also without red undersides, flowering stems longer than three inches
TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN USES
- combined with other plant species to treat a wide variety of syndromes in Hawaiian medicine
HAWAIIAN RAIN FOREST ECOLOGY
- grow out of the soil on the forest floor, on nurse logs, and less commonly as an epiphyte
- original `ala `ala wai nui on the forest floor in Niaulani were probably displaced by kahili ginger which shaded them out
- species in Niaulani planted by the VAC caretaker in late 1990’s; all plantings found along or near the nature trail
- many planted colonies in Niaulani are spreading around their planted parents, mostly vegetatively by rooting from horizontal stems
- may also be spreading by seed
SAY IT IN HAWAIIAN!!
Hawaiian Rain Forest 