DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
- leaves long, narrow and leathery
- leaves similar color green on both surfaces
- leaf margin slightly prickly
- climbing on `ōhi`a or trees ferns with tendrils or short, upright, spreading shrub
TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN USES
- thin aerial roots along stems were split and woven into baskets, cordage, fish traps, and mahiole (helmets)
- placed on hula altars to represent the demigoddess Lauka`Ie`Ie
HAWAIIAN RAIN FOREST ECOLOGY
- one of the few vines in native Hawaiian flora
- both a climbing vine and a sprawling shrub between the trees and trees ferns; lots of ecological
- opportunities for Hawaiian native plants with so few species establishing in the islands
- very sensitive to damage from cattle and pigs; abundance at Niaulani reflects fencing in 20th century and protection from ungulates
- survived kahili ginger decades as a vine above the ginger
- spreading now that ginger removed; can live on the forest floor as a shrub
`IE`IE (FREYCINETIA ARBOREA) sprawling across the floor of a Hawaiian rain forest
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DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
- vine running on ground, over nurse logs, up tree ferns and `ōhi`a, attaching by roots from the stem
- stems noticeably square (four flat sides)
- leaves in pairs, roundish to oval, and margin with rounded, forward-pointing teeth
- flowers magenta to purple or almost white
TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN USES
- none listed in standard sources
HAWAIIAN RAIN FOREST ECOLOGY
- a “mintless” mint; minty taste and odor (chemical defense) lost in all Hawaiian mints; no herbivorous mammals native to Hawai`i
- mā`ohi`ohi low in the forest understory and vulnerable there to pigs, cattle, and dense weeds like kahili ginger
- common in nearby national park forest without feral pigs and only scattered non-native ginger
- probably occurred at Niaualani but displaced by pigs and certainly by ginger
- restored by VAC staff and thriving in forest now that ginger is controlled
MĀ`OHI`OHI (STENOGYNE CALAMINTHOIDES) climbing up a nurse log on rain forest floor
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DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
- often a vine climbing on nearby vegetation when more than 12 inches long
- leaves opposite each other in pairs on stem, occasionally with three leaves opposite each other in whorls of three leaves
- crushed or torn leaves have white, milky latex juice exuding from break in leaf
TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN USES
- widely used by Native Hawaiians for lei making
- one of five native plant species offered on hula altar for the four maile sisters
- fragrance of the maile plant due to presence of coumarin, found in all plant parts
HAWAIIAN RAIN FOREST ECOLOGY
- grows as slender, woody vine, climbing or twining on other vegetation
- in rain forest, grows best in canopy gaps with higher light levels
- all maile plants in Ni`aulani are plantings
A section of MᾹMAKI (PIPTURUS ALBIDUS) vine.
HOW TO SAY “MAILE” IN HAWAIIAN
Meet Ni'aulani, in Volcano Village on Hawai' Island
Hawaiian Rain Forest 