Gardenia brighamii
Nānū, nāʻū or Forest gardenia
Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Endemic to the Hawaiian Islands (Extant on Oʻahu, Lānaʻi. Extinct on Molokaʻi, West Maui and Hawaiʻi island)
IUCN: Critically Endangered
Nānākuli Valley, Oʻahu
Trunk of the last wild nāʻū remaining on Oʻahu.
There are now only 16 remaining nāʻū (Gardenia brighamii) left in the wild: 1 on Oʻahu; the rest on Kānepuʻu, Lānaʻi.
A recent brush fire in Nānākuli Valley on the west side of Oʻahu threatened and damaged this last nāʻū. The videos below tells how it fared.
Video (DLNR)
Video (KHON)
khon2.com/2016/03/30/native-plant-species-victims-of-2500...
Flowers (pua) are very fragrant, similar to other gardenia species, were strung into lei by early Hawaiians.
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/5188030526/
The intense orange-yellow colored pulp of the fruit was also used to dye to kapa a rich yellow by early Hawaiians for the aliʻi. This vibrant color used for kapa was called nāʻū or nānū, after the plant itself.
Kapa anvils or kua kuku on which kapa was beaten in the second-stage process was made from the wood of nāʻū.
Etymology
The generic name Gardenia is named in honor of Alexander Garden (1730-1791) of Charleston, South Carolina who was a botanist, zoologist and physician, and correspondent to John Ellis, zoologist, and Carolus Linnaeus, who devised the classification of genus/species we presently used today.
The specific epithet brighamii, is named in honor of William Tufts Brigham (1841-1926), geologist, botanist and the first direction of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.
Gardenia brighamii
Nānū, nāʻū or Forest gardenia
Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Endemic to the Hawaiian Islands (Extant on Oʻahu, Lānaʻi. Extinct on Molokaʻi, West Maui and Hawaiʻi island)
IUCN: Critically Endangered
Nānākuli Valley, Oʻahu
Trunk of the last wild nāʻū remaining on Oʻahu.
There are now only 16 remaining nāʻū (Gardenia brighamii) left in the wild: 1 on Oʻahu; the rest on Kānepuʻu, Lānaʻi.
A recent brush fire in Nānākuli Valley on the west side of Oʻahu threatened and damaged this last nāʻū. The videos below tells how it fared.
Video (DLNR)
Video (KHON)
khon2.com/2016/03/30/native-plant-species-victims-of-2500...
Flowers (pua) are very fragrant, similar to other gardenia species, were strung into lei by early Hawaiians.
www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/5188030526/
The intense orange-yellow colored pulp of the fruit was also used to dye to kapa a rich yellow by early Hawaiians for the aliʻi. This vibrant color used for kapa was called nāʻū or nānū, after the plant itself.
Kapa anvils or kua kuku on which kapa was beaten in the second-stage process was made from the wood of nāʻū.
Etymology
The generic name Gardenia is named in honor of Alexander Garden (1730-1791) of Charleston, South Carolina who was a botanist, zoologist and physician, and correspondent to John Ellis, zoologist, and Carolus Linnaeus, who devised the classification of genus/species we presently used today.
The specific epithet brighamii, is named in honor of William Tufts Brigham (1841-1926), geologist, botanist and the first direction of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.