Common Forest Trees of Hawaii (Native and Introduced)

‘Opiuma reddish brown. Wood moderately hard, heavy, strong, and durable. It takes a high polish but is brittle and not Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth. easily worked. Elsewhere, the wood is employed for general con- Legume family (Leguminosae) struction, boxes and crates, posts, and fuel. The bark has Post-Cook introduction been harvested for its high tannin content. It also yields a yellow dye and is an ingredient in home remedies. A mu- This tree, introduced about 1870 for shade in dry low- cilage can be made by dissolving in water the transparent lands, has become naturalized. It is identified by paired deep reddish brown gum that exudes from the trunk. sharp spines usually present at base of leaf, twice pinnate The thick whitish sweetish acid pulp around the seeds leaves with 4 oblong leaflets, small creamy white flow- 3 can be eaten or made into a fruit drink. Livestock browse ers in balls of ⁄8 inch (1 cm), and curved or coiled pink to the pods under the trees. The flat black seeds are strung brown pods with several shiny black seeds mostly cov- into leis in Hawaii. The tree is also a honey plant. ered by whitish pulp. Mimosa subfamily (Mimosoideae). This attractive species makes a good highway and Small to medium-sized tree to 60 ft (18 m) high and street tree, especially in dry areas, growing rapidly and 2 ft (0.6 m) in trunk diametr, the short trunk and branches enduring drought, heat, and shade. It withstands close often crooked, with broad spreading crown and slender browsing and pruning and is suitable for fences and drooping twigs. Nearly evergreen but shedding old hedges. Formerly, it was a popular street tree in south- leaves as new pinkish or reddish foliage appears. Bark ern Florida. However, it was susceptible to hurricane light gray, smoothish, becoming slightly rough and fur- damage and did not recover well. rowed. Inner bark thick, light brown, and bitter or as- In Hawaii, this species is planted and naturalized in tringent. Twigs slender and drooping, greenish and pastures and waste places through the dry lowlands. It lightly hairy when young, becoming gray, covered with is of frequent occurrence along the highway near many small whitish dots (lenticels). Haleiwa, Oahu, and in the scrub forest near Lahaina, Leaves alternate, bipinnate, with pair of slender, 1 5 Maui. One cultivated form has variegated green and sharp spines (stipules) ⁄16Ð ⁄8 inch (1.5Ð15 mm) long usu- 1 white leaves. Degener (1930) reported that the false ally present at base, very slender green leafstalk of ⁄4Ð 1 mynah bird eats the fleshy seed covering and spreads 1 ⁄2 inches (6Ð38 mm) with tiny round gland near apex, 1 1 the seeds. According to Neal (1965), the Hawaiian name and 2 lateral axes (pinnae) only ⁄8Ð ⁄4 inch (3Ð6 mm) ‘opiuma is from the resemblance of the seeds to the long. Leaflets four in pairs, nearly stalkless, oblong or 1 3 5 opium of commerce. ovate, ⁄2Ð2 inches (13Ð50 mm) long and ⁄16Ð ⁄8 inch (5Ð 15 mm) wide, rounded at apex, the oblique base rounded Champion or short-pointed, not toothed on edges, thin or slightly Height 66 ft (20.1 m), c.b.h. 24.9 ft (7.6 m), spread 107 thickened, hairy or hairless, dull pale green above, and ft (32.6 m) Napoopoo, Hawaii (1968). light green beneath. Range Flower clusters (heads) many, short-stalked in slen- Mexico (Baja California, Sonora, and Chihuahua south- der drooping terminal or lateral axes, each covered with ward) through Central America to Colombia and Ven- whitish hairs and composed of 20Ð30 densely hairy flow- ezuela. Widely planted and naturalized in New and Old ers. Each flower has tubular hairy five-toothed calyx 1 World tropics. Introduced in southern Florida and Puerto about ⁄16 inch (1.5 mm) long; funnel-shaped tubular hairy 1 Rico and Virgin Islands. five-toothed corolla about ⁄8 inch (3 mm) long; about 50 spreading long threadlike stamens united into short tube Other common names at base; and pistil with hairy ovary and threadlike style. gaumuchil, Manilatamarind, Madras-thorn; guama 3 5 Pods 4Ð5 inches (10Ð13 cm) long, ⁄8Ð ⁄8 inch (1Ð1.5 americano (Puerto Rico); guamuche (Mexico, com- cm) wide, slightly flattened, inconspicuously hairy. merce); kamachili (Guam, N. Marianas); kamatsiri 3 Seeds beanlike, elliptical, ⁄8 inch (1 cm) long, hanging (Palau) down from open pod inside pulpy edible mass (aril) as 3 This species was named and described botanically much as ⁄4 inch (2 cm) long. With flowers in spring and in 1795 from Coromandel, India, where ft had been in- fruits from April to June. troduced. The specific name, meaning sweet, refers to Sapwood is yellowish, and heartwood yellowish or the edible seed pulp.

This information is from Agriculture Handbook no. 679 by Elbert L. Little Jr. and Roger G. Skolmen, published by the Forest Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, in 1989. Its present format is that of a reprint version published by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. Common Forest Trees of Hawaii (Native and Introduced)

‘Opluma Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth. Flowering twig, leafy twig, fruits (below), 1 X (P.R. v. 1)

This information is from Agriculture Handbook no. 679 by Elbert L. Little Jr. and Roger G. Skolmen, published by the Forest Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, in 1989. Its present format is that of a reprint version published by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003.