Pono Plant access to important plants

Māmaki

Pipturus albidus

status: see notes

A native you can actually grow and use. Māmaki is an endemic member of the nettle family, the source of a caffeine-free Hawaiian tea, a traditional fiber and medicine plant, and the beloved host of the endemic Kamehameha butterfly. It is fast, forgiving, and unlisted, which makes it one of the most reachable important plants there is.

Status

Endemic to Hawai'i and not listed as threatened. It is common and vigorous enough to be grown and harvested for tea, and Plant Pono screens it as a low-risk, non-invasive plant that is safe to grow here.

Native range

Endemic to Hawai'i, on all the main islands except Ni'ihau and Kaho'olawe, from about 200 to 6,000 feet in coastal, mesic, and wet forest.

Propagation

  • seed, sown directly or started and transplanted at 8 to 12 inches tall
  • generally fast and forgiving

Under the mist

Our hypothesis, not established: It roots and grows fast from seed and cuttings, so it is a low-stakes plant to try on the propagation bench. We have not run it under mist yet, so we call that a plan, not a result.

Access

  • Nursery-propagated only, never wild-collected.
  • Unlisted and non-invasive, so it is legal to grow and share as ordinary nursery stock.
  • Any plant leaving Hawai'i goes through USDA and Hawai'i Department of Agriculture inspection first, with no soil on the roots.

How to obtain: waitlist

Māmaki is the rare important plant that asks little of you. It grows fast, it is not fussy, and it is not endangered, so growing and sharing it takes nothing from the wild.

Its leaves make a caffeine-free tea long used in Hawai'i, and early Hawaiians used the wood for kapa beaters and the plant for fiber and medicine (DLNR).

It also feeds the forest. Māmaki is a host plant for the endemic Kamehameha butterfly, so a hedge of it is habitat, not just greenery (Plant Pono).

Sources