HS Flora
| 'Öhi'a lehua - Metrosideros polymorpha |
| Written by Paul Wood |
| December 27, 2007 |
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'Öhi'a lehua - Metrosideros polymorpha  Remnants off the primordial Hawaiian forest still exist in remote mountain areas of the Islands. The true Hawaiian forest features an open canopy, full of space and light that allows for a diversity of life forms and many levels of understory. This botanical "Aloha spirit" of welcome derives largely from the 'öhi'a lehua — a native flowering tree that is surrounded by charming myths and legends, and that continues to have cultural importance for the Islands today.'Öhi'a comes in many sizes, shapes, and colors but perhaps its most famous example is a bright red flower that clearly reminded the original Hawaiians of fresh, brilliant lava. Accordingly, they considered such flowers to be sacred to Pele, the volcano goddess. People said picking one of these flowers brought on rain, so when gathering mountain blossoms for lei-making, they wouldn't begin picking this particular flower until they were on their way home, in order to avoid getting lost in the rain and mist. These days, the red 'öhi'a blossom still serves as the symbol of Hawai'i Island in every May Day court and Kamehameha Day parade.  'Öhi'a lehua comes in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. The plant's height can range from just a few inches tall, to 100 feet. Leaves range from round to narrow, blunt or pointed, smooth or woolly. Mature leaves are dark, flat green but young leaves are often reddish or even pink. And while the flowers are usually red or orange-red, some are salmon, pink, yellow, or even white (the form known as lehua puakea).A classic 'öhi'a of the rainforest begins with a stand of modest-sized trees that grow with ample space between them, each tree with plenty of openings between the clumps of dark-green, roundish leaves. Picture the mist roll through the branches, obscuring and revealing the foliage clumps, and add flashes of bright red at the stem ends. These red zones are the trees' bristly, all-stamen flowers. Complete your mental scene with a few native birds: perhaps the small red honeycreepers, flitting from branch to branch and plunging their curved beaks into the nectar-loaded blossoms.  Some people call this plant simply "'öhi'a " (o-hee-ah); others use the single word lehua (lay-hoo-ah). Botanists have dozens of names for this plant, many of them relics of past attempts to split the species into any number of discreet groups. Current thinking—as stated in University of Hawai'i Press's Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i—admits to eight varieties of this species, each of those varieties lumping a number of smaller groupings described by previous botanists. All of these go under the umbrella species name "polymorpha," meaning "lots of shapes."In fact, the ability to adapt to places and conditions has made 'öhi'a one of the most successful of all Hawaiian native plants. It grows on all the main islands (except Ni'ihau and Kaho'olawe) from sea level to the tops of all but the very highest mountains. A plant has to use considerable ingenuity if it plans to grow anywhere it pleases in the Hawaiian Islands, which are crowded with weathers and altitudes and growing conditions. 'Öhi'a is quick to find a root-hold in the rocky crevices of recent lava flows. In fact, it is the dominant plant of the black terrain around Kilauea volcano, where it associates with tree ferns. It will drop its seeds in the crowns of the ferns. In this area, many 'öhi'a trees grow on tall stilt roots. These are trees that sprouted in fern crowns and sent roots to the ground below, eventually strangling the host plant. It is said that the Hawaiians traditionally thought of the fern as the mother of the 'öhi'a.  The structure of these flowers—basically just bristling tufts of stamens—places 'öhi'a lehua firmly in the botanical family called Myrtaceae (Mer-TAY-see-ee). Its close relations include the myrtle (that's the type genus for this family), the genus Eucalyptus, all the guavas, and all those showy shrubs that people call "bottlebrush." Myrtaceae is a very successful family of the tropics and subtropics primarily focused in America and Australia. This puts 'öhi'a right in the middle of the family range. It is endemic to Hawai'i—native, but not restricted to—and it occurs in various forms on many of the high islands of the Pacific.The Hawaiians have several traditional uses for 'öhi'a. Its dark-red wood is very hard. (The genus name Metrosideros commemorates that fact. The Greek word metra means heart or heartwood; sideron means iron.) Canoe-builders used this tough material to form the mo'o or gunwales, the places where paddles rub and strike against the sides of the canoe. Carvers have also fashioned this wood into bowls, poi boards, mallets, and spears. This was the wood used for ki'i (carved idols), and it played an important role in the construction and dedication of heiau (temples). 'Öhi'a leaves have a medicinal quality. In the old days, people used the foliage to cure thrush, a common throat ailment among the keiki (children). Nowadays 'öhi'a is gaining popularity along with other native plants as a landscaping item. It blooms prodigiously and is beloved by bees. And yet, these days, its greatest value is symbolic. It marks a place where we remember to cherish the beauty, the generosity, and the enduring health of our remaining native Hawaiian forests. |
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