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Native Plants and Pohaku of Kaena Point – Part 3
Posted: February 17, 2009
The rainy winter months are the best time to hike to Kaena Point to see the native plants and pohaku (boulders) which figure prominently in the stories and culture of old Hawaii.
Kaena means “the heat” and appropriate describes the hot arid landscape which receives less than 40 inches of rainfall annually, most of it during the winter months. The native plant communities that make their home in the Natural Area Reserve must withstand these dry hot conditions and the salt spray kicked-up by waves crashing against the coastline.
Naupaka kuahiwi or beach naupaka (scaevola sericea) is the dominant shrub at Kaena Point. Naupaka is particularly important to the plant community because it stabilizes the sand dunes and creates habitat for many coastal plants and animals.
Naupaka has distinctive “half-flowers” that bloom beneath its leaves. The flowers are by no means incomplete, but they appear to be only half-a-flower because their five petals are only on one side giving the flower a fan-like shape. Beach naupaka flowers are about half-an-inch across and are generally white in color but can have a yellowish or purplish tinge.
According to legend, the half flowers originate from a Hawaiian princess who was forbidden to marry her true love, a fisherman, because he was a commoner. Forced to part ways forever, she tore a flower in half, gave one half to him and kept the other half for herself. She then returned to the mountains where her family lived. Broken-hearted, they both planted their respective halves of the flower. Each half grew and became the two forms of naupaka – the beach naupaka (naupaka kahakai) and the mountain naupaka (naupaka kuahiwi) which only form a whole flower when reunited.
One of the more interesting plants at Kaena Point is ohai (sesbania tomentosa) which grows as a low-lying shrub. Ohai is an endangered species that was once reduced to about a dozen specimens before the Natural Area Reserve was created and all-terrain vehicles were prohibited from Kaena Point. Ohai has hairy silvery leaves that allow the plant to conserve moisture and produces unusually-shaped red-orange flowers.
One of my favorite things to do when I reach the very tip of Kaena Point is visit a patch of pohinahina or the beach vitex (Vitex rotundifolia) that grows right out of the sand. Pohinahina produces charming blue-purple flowers and rosettes of leaves that release a sweet fragrance when crushed. The refreshing scent of pohinahina leaves always reminds me of Kauai where pohinahina grows in great numbers at Kalalau Beach, my favorite backpacking destination.
Just offshore from the very tip of Kaena Point is ”Pohaku O Kauai” a large boulder which according to tradition was once a part of Kauai. According to the lore of old Hawaii, the boulder was brought to Oahu when Maui, the Hawaiian superhero demigod, attempted to bring Kauai closer to Oahu. Maui used his magical hook “Mana’ia-ka-lani” to grapple the foundations of Kauai and pull it closer to Oahu. During this struggle, a part of Kauai – “Pohahu O Kauai” — suddenly broke-off and catapulted to the tip of Kaena Point while the magical hook swung backwards and struck the Ko’olau Mountains with such force that it created Ka’au Crater. Much more of the large boulder was above the water line in the past but much of it submerged after the tsunami of 1946.
Although the landscape is dominated by naupaka, beach ilima or “ilima papa” in Hawaiian (Sida fallax) is by far the more eye-catching plant at Kaena Point, especially during the rainy winter months when thousands of charming yellow-orange flowers burst into bloom. The beach ilima grows as ground cover no more than 6-12 inches high off the ground.
Ilima papa is often found with the native morning glory pauohiiaki (Jacquemontia ovalifolia subsp. sandwicensis) which also crawls over the sand but has small purplish flowers. When they bloom along side each other, the green tapestry of their intermingled foliage is accented by lovely purple and yellow-orange flowers.
Another beautiful ground cover at Kaena Point is nehe (Lipochaeta integrifolia). During the peak winter bloom, the landscape is ablaze with the yellow-orange color of nehe and ilima flowers.
Pehaps my favorite ground cover plant at Kaena Point is hinahina-ku-kahakai (Heliotropium anomalum var. argenteum). The leaves of hinahina form geometrically shaped rosettes that are covered with soft silky hairs and allow the plant to conserve moisture. They also reflect the light and give the plant a silvery sheen. Hinahina is named after the Hawaiian goddess of the moon — Hina, who represents growth and reproduction — for the silvery color of moonlight. While hinahina it not endangered, it is not common and is usually found in areas not frequently trampled by humans.
Hinahina thrives on and around the sacred pohaku of “Leina a ka ‘Uhane” or Soul’s Leap on the Mokuleia-side of Kaena Point. According to Hawaiian tradition, the souls of the dead leap into the after life from this rock.
Kaena Point is one of the last wild coastal areas left on Oahu. Much of the coastline of Oahu was once similar to Kaena Point but they have been drastically modified by urban and residential development. While Kaena Point is a joy to visit year-round, the rainy winter months are the best time to visit when migratory animals arrive and native flowers burst into bloom.
This is the third and last post in a three-part series about Kaena Point. The previous second post is here and the initial first post is here.
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SOURCES
Kaena Point Management Plan, State of Hawaii, Division of Forestry and Wildlife
Native Hawaiian Plants, University of Hawaii, Department of Botany
Hi Nate,
Excellent writing and photography, as usual.
I would like to think that gardeners in drier areas of Hawai’i would be inspired to attempt to develop gardens based many of the plants found at Ka’ena, which do not require as much water as other plants. I read somewhere where the plains areas of Waipahu and what is now Kapolei was covered with the native morning glory and the ground ‘ilima.
Hi Helen… thanks… glad you enjoyed it. Yes… the plants at Kaena Point are drought tolerant and are excellent for low-maintenance xeriscape gardens. Many of them are sold at Home Depot. Regards, Nate.