Antidesma pulvinatum

Description:

HamePhyllanthaceae (Phyllanthus family)Endemic to the Hawaiian Islands (Oahu (Waianae Mountains and the southeast Koolau Mountains), east Molokai, Lnai (Maunalei Valley), Maui, and Hawaii Island.)Oahu (Cultivated), Oahu form (pictured here)Hawaiian Names:Other names for this species are Hamehame, Ha, Hamaile, Mehame, and Mehamehame.*Female flowerswww.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 settingwww.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 (), and scraping boards for olon.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 olon (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).EtymologyThe 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, Mhamehame, with kahak over the first "e," is the name of its very rare cousin Flueggea neowawraea.nativeplants.hawaii.edu/plant/view/Antidesma_pulvinatum