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Hōʻawa - It is hard to tell Hōʻawa from some native plants especially clermontia and even alani. The nut is the key to identifying Hōʻawa. I've seen Hōʻawa occur in both the Waianae and Koolau Mountain Ranges on the island of Oahu.
Background Information
Hōʻawa is endemic and is quite common in the native forest. In Ancient Hawaii, the wood was used for gunwales on canoes. The nut was also a favorite food of the now extinct in the wild ʻAlalā the Hawaiian crow. In modern times, I've seen it in landscaping.
Hōʻawa
The leaves of Hōʻawa are slender about 4-10 inches in length and clusters at the top of the branches. The flower is not easily seen all the time, and its appearance is white or cream color, has 5 petals, and under 1 inch long. The fruit looks like the size of a walnut with a wrinkled surface and divided in 2 or 4 equal segments.
Hōʻawa at Ka'au Crater
Hōʻawa
The leaves of Hōʻawa look like Alani, so identifying the nut is key to identifying the plant.
Hōʻawa
Although the book Hawaiian Plant Life is a great book, the pictures of Hōʻawa in that book does not do it any good in trying to identify the different species of Hōʻawa. But based on what I gathered however, there seems to be 2 main species of Hōʻawa on Oahu, the confertiflorum and glabrum. I'll have to do better research when identifying the different types of Hōʻawa
Hōʻawa
The Hōʻawa plant below was seen in the Waianae Mountain Range. It looks different than other Hōʻawa species I've seen in the wild. The nut is at the top of the plant. In most Hōʻawa plants, the nut occurs within the leaves. The leaves are also huge and not skinny like most Hōʻawa.
Source:
- Hall, 90
- Hawaiian Plant Life, 134-135
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