Alani

Alani - fellow hiking friend Darren Ito says to pull the leaf apart and smell. If it has that citrus smell, it is Alani. If not, it might be Kolea. Alani is very common in the Koolaus, and ton on Ka'ala. The Mount Olympus trail and Hawaii Loa Ridge trail are good place to see Alani.

Background Information

Alani is an endemic species and is very common in the upper native forest on Oahu. More so in the Southern Koolau Range, although Mount Ka'ala has a ton and different species too. It is part of the citrus family. Ancient Hawaiians used the berries to make leis and the leaves were used to mask the smell of kapa.

Alani

This species is called Melicope clusiifolia. An easy way to identify this species is that the leaves whorls close together in either 2,4,8. However, the difficult thing is that other species of Alani grow near this species especially on the Konahuanui trail which will make it hard to distinguish between the different Alani's.

Has star anise shape

Found on Aiea Ridge

Leaves fold when mature?

Alani

This Alani is called Melicope hosakae. It was once known as Melicope honoluluensis. Just the thought of a species called honoluluensis is worth finding. I assume and I may be wrong, but the honoluluensis is located in the Southern Koolau Range. I can't positively identify this as Melicope hosakae, but it is definitely different than the clusiifolia species.

Big Tree 20 feet high

Alani

This species of Alani is called Melicope rotundifolia. The leaves are opposite and broad. It only occurs from the Northern KST to Niu Valley.

Alani

This Alani might be Melicope kaalaensis. This picture was taken Ka'ala bog. The occruance is from Kaua to Makua. Here are some of the leaf features I noticed. The leaves have reddish brown veins, the upper service of the leaf is glossy dark green and the lower surface more paler. The leave also grow opposite of one another.

Sources