This Week in Nature: The 3rd week in May - Ohia lehua

What's happening in Hawaii
During the 3rd week in May:

"Ola aku la ka 'āina kaha

ua pua ka lehua i kai 

Life has come to the kaha lands,

for the lehua blooms are seen at sea."

In Kekaha and the "kaha lands" of the Kona coast, the phrase pua ka lehua - "flowers of the lehua" - was a way of alluding to aku without saying their name outright, which is thought to scare off fish.

Red lehua blossom.
Photo: DOFAW

Lehua may mean an "expert" as well, so a master of fishing arts would be called "a lehua blossom in fishing." Lehua of this sort are busy in Kona because summer brings not only large schools of aku but also other tuna and the great a'u (marlin).

Yellow lehua blossom.
Photo by Forest & Kim Starr

The source of this wordplay is that 'ōhi'a lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) blooms profusely during the summer. Today, 'ōhi'a forests are found mostly at high elevations, so their brilliant blossoms would rarely be visible from the sea even in June or July, when flowering is at its peak.

Orange lehua blossom

Photo by Forest & Kim Starr

But some 'ōhi'a can still be found near sea level, and Hawaiians of an earlier time could have seen the flowers from their canoes and taken it as a reminder of the good fishing at Kona.

'ōhi'a fruit.

Photo by Forest & Kim Starr

To learn more about 'ōhi'a lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha), visit the National Tropical Botanical Gardens website, or the 'ōhi'a info page at Hawaii Ecosystems At Risk (HEAR.org).
 

Kamehameha butterfly resting on an 'ōhi'a tree.
Photo by Forest & Kim Starr

To see more photos of this species, visit Forest and Kim Starr's gallery at HEAR.org.

Text and drawn image from "Hawaii: A Calendar of Natural Events"

published by the Bishop Museum and Kamehameha Schools in 1989