NAME:

Hawaiian:     Ko‘oloa‘ula

English:        Flowering maple

Latin:            Abutilon menziesii

FAMILY:      Malvaceae

STATUS:    Endemic, Endangered, Moderately easy to propagate from seed

APPEARANCE:

A diffusely branched shrub up to 2 meters tall.  This low lying shrub is sometimes referred to as pink Ilima.  It grows from sea level to 660 meters in elevation if planted on dry side of the island.

Flower: Deep pink flower with darker stamen.  There is variation of color within petals.

Leaves: Light green serrated-edged ovate leaves.  These are more heart shaped than truly oval.

This plant was thought to originally have descended from a solitary group in Puako.  Recently they have found 2 groups in Ka‘u and one in Lana‘i.

CULTURAL/HISTORICAL USE

Often strung in a lei like the ‘Ilima flower. Because of the critically endangered plants that are left, no one uses them for lei anymore.  This was rumored to be one of the favorite lei of Kalakaua.

Flowers were occasionally used, after being crushed, as a pink dye.