Antidesma pulvinatum
Hame
Phyllanthaceae (Phyllanthus family)
Endemic to the Hawaiian Islands (Oʻahu (Waiʻanae Mountains and the southeast Koʻolau Mountains), east Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi (Maunalei Valley), Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island.)
Oʻahu (Cultivated), Oʻahu form (pictured here regeneration)
These seedlings came up through the leave litter below the mother tree. These are found in several small patches around my Hawaiian Fern Garden area. As opportunistic feeders, I theorize that in the ancient forests of the Hawaiian Islands, the now extinct land crabs (Geograpsus severnsi) would have kept the number of seedlings in check.
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/5126880848/in/photolist-...
www.flickr.com/photos/alan_cressler/6649797327/in/photoli...
One source notes:
"Hawaiian land crabs were the most land-adapted crab species in the Pacific, their fossils found farther inland and at higher elevations than others. They were the largest of its genus, Geograpsus, and were important predators in the flora and fauna of the Hawaiian Islands, taking seeds, plants, small invertebrates, and small nesting seabirds." **
Hawaiian Names:
Other names for this species are Hamehame, Haʻā, Haʻāmaile, Mehame, and Mehamehame.*
Female flowers
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/4821991737/in/photolist-...
Leaves (red to pink)
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/18549631291/in/photolist...
Leaves (bronze)
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/5455338330/in/photolist-...
Leaves (orange)
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/18543222852/in/photolist...
Habit in urban setting
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/26450805894/in/photostream/
The wood is very hard, strong and durable. And being one of the heaviest native woods, it sinks in water.
Early Hawaiians, therefore, used for tools such as kapa tools, hut beams, javelins or spears, digging sticks (ʻōʻō), and scraping boards for olonā.
Medicinally, early Hawaiians chewed and swallowed hame leaves for vomiting spells. The bark, mixed with other plants, was used as a wash for ulcers and scrofulous sores.
Hawaiians used the red-brown wood for kapa (tapa) beaters that were used to beat out olonā (Touchardia latifolia) fiber.
The red fruit juice mixed with kamani oil (Calophyllum inophyllum) was used to make a bright red dye for kapa cloth, particularly for the malo (loincloth).
Etymology
The generic name Antidesma is derived from the Greek anti, against, and desma, literally headband, but used by J. Burman, friend and correspondent of Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, to mean poison; the name was intended to refer to the use of a plant in the genus against snakebite.
The specific epithet pulvinatum is from the Latin pulvinatus, cushion-like or -shaped.
_____
* Mehamehame. A similar spelling, Mēhamehame, with kahakō over the first "e," is the name of its very rare cousin Flueggea neowawraea.
** earthsky.org/earth/newly-discovered-hawaiian-land-crab-sp...
Antidesma pulvinatum
Hame
Phyllanthaceae (Phyllanthus family)
Endemic to the Hawaiian Islands (Oʻahu (Waiʻanae Mountains and the southeast Koʻolau Mountains), east Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi (Maunalei Valley), Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island.)
Oʻahu (Cultivated), Oʻahu form (pictured here regeneration)
These seedlings came up through the leave litter below the mother tree. These are found in several small patches around my Hawaiian Fern Garden area. As opportunistic feeders, I theorize that in the ancient forests of the Hawaiian Islands, the now extinct land crabs (Geograpsus severnsi) would have kept the number of seedlings in check.
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/5126880848/in/photolist-...
www.flickr.com/photos/alan_cressler/6649797327/in/photoli...
One source notes:
"Hawaiian land crabs were the most land-adapted crab species in the Pacific, their fossils found farther inland and at higher elevations than others. They were the largest of its genus, Geograpsus, and were important predators in the flora and fauna of the Hawaiian Islands, taking seeds, plants, small invertebrates, and small nesting seabirds." **
Hawaiian Names:
Other names for this species are Hamehame, Haʻā, Haʻāmaile, Mehame, and Mehamehame.*
Female flowers
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/4821991737/in/photolist-...
Leaves (red to pink)
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/18549631291/in/photolist...
Leaves (bronze)
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/5455338330/in/photolist-...
Leaves (orange)
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/18543222852/in/photolist...
Habit in urban setting
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/26450805894/in/photostream/
The wood is very hard, strong and durable. And being one of the heaviest native woods, it sinks in water.
Early Hawaiians, therefore, used for tools such as kapa tools, hut beams, javelins or spears, digging sticks (ʻōʻō), and scraping boards for olonā.
Medicinally, early Hawaiians chewed and swallowed hame leaves for vomiting spells. The bark, mixed with other plants, was used as a wash for ulcers and scrofulous sores.
Hawaiians used the red-brown wood for kapa (tapa) beaters that were used to beat out olonā (Touchardia latifolia) fiber.
The red fruit juice mixed with kamani oil (Calophyllum inophyllum) was used to make a bright red dye for kapa cloth, particularly for the malo (loincloth).
Etymology
The generic name Antidesma is derived from the Greek anti, against, and desma, literally headband, but used by J. Burman, friend and correspondent of Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, to mean poison; the name was intended to refer to the use of a plant in the genus against snakebite.
The specific epithet pulvinatum is from the Latin pulvinatus, cushion-like or -shaped.
_____
* Mehamehame. A similar spelling, Mēhamehame, with kahakō over the first "e," is the name of its very rare cousin Flueggea neowawraea.
** earthsky.org/earth/newly-discovered-hawaiian-land-crab-sp...