Bobea elatior

Description:

Ahakea lau nui*Rubiaceae (Coffee family)Bobea is a Hawaiian endemic genus of 4 speciesKalauao Trail, Koolau Mts., OahuThis ahakea (Bobea elatior) is the most widespread of four species in the endemic genus Bobea.Ahakea lau nui is the centerpiece tree with two indigenous ephiphytes on growing on it: kaha (Asplenium nidus) or bird's nest fern and moa nahele or flat-stemmed whiskfern (Psilotum complanatum) are in this tree. Bobea flower www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/4743671208/in/photolist-...Bobea fruit www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/4970195972/in/photolist-... kaha in cultivation www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/12073042346/in/photolist...Early Hawaiians had many uses for ahakea. It was used for canoe (waa) construction, the hard yellowish or reddish wood of ahakea was the most favorite wood for making gunwales strakes (moo), the forward end piece (lau ihu), and the aft piece (lau hope). Canoe paddles were also made from ahakea wood.It was also the preferred to frame hale (house) doorways and door frames (lapauila) because the reddish or yellowish colored wood was a chiefly color.Poi boards (papa kui poi) were made from ahakea because its close grained wood. Ahakea, mixed with kukui nuts, was also used medicinally to help with abseces, burst sores (ili ph); scar, perhaps tuberculosis; (alaala); and itch, ulcer (meeau). The bark and leaves were boiled and used to bathe in.Medicinally, moa (Psilotum spp.) was used byt he early Hawaiians for kkae paa (constipation) in newborn babies and elderly men and women. It was also mixed with other plants to treat akepau (tuberculosis, consumption), and various respiratory conditions. Additionally, extracts from moa were used as laxatives. The spores were used for diarrhea in infants and used like talcum powder to prevent chafing from loincloths.Moa was also used in lei making by early Hawaiians.Early Hawaiian children would play a simple game of moa nahele (lit., chicken vegetation). "Plants in Hawaiian Culture" explains how this game was played: Two children sat or stood facing one another, each holding a branched stem of moa. These they interlocked and then slowly pulled apart until the branches of one broke. The other child, without broken branches, was the winner and announced his victory by crowing like a rooster (moa). One of the names o moa in fact means "cock's crow."EtymologyThe generic name Bobea is named by Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupr in 1830 for Jean-Baptiste Bobe-Moreau, physician and pharmacist in the French Marine.The specific epithet elatior is Latin for higher or best._____* The name Ahakea lau nui literally means "ahakea with big leaves."nativeplants.hawaii.edu/plant/view/Bobea_elatior