Posted on: Sunday, April 15, 2001

'Ulei one of most versatile plants native to Hawai'i

By Heidi Bornhorst
Special to The Advertiser

I was reminded of a cool native Hawaiian plant when I took a walk in an old neighborhood the other day. There was a lovely hapa-haole garden.

Dwarf mondo grass, Japanese pines, camellias, kokotan and old mossy rocks were interplanted with 'ohia lehua, koki'o ke'o ke'o and a gorgeous cascading 'ulei bush. Later, I met the woman who crafted this garden and complimented her on all of it, especially the stylish, flowing 'ulei. She said she had trained the flexible stems to cascade over a boulder and then took away the boulder, leaving the cascading waterfall of stems. 'Ôlei lends itself well to training into the shape you want.

'Ulei, with its glossy green leaves, flexible stems and clusters of white, gently fragrant blossoms, followed by white round fruit that has a bluish tint, is in the rose family. Hawaiians used this plant for spears, 'ukeke (a musical instrument) and for the hoops of fishnets. The twining woody stems are supple and flexible when young and tough when they mature. It is a tough, less-thirsty plant good as a groundcover, hedge, arbor or even — with time — a small tree. You can turn it into a bonsai in your garden or a decorative pot.

It is one of the toughest and most versatile of our native plants. You find it in places that have been totally taken over by aggressive alien weeds. Roadsides where nothing native is left will sometimes sport some 'ulei, twining around the other plants quite happily. In the wild, you find in open sunny places where the wind whips by, along slopes and roadsides, and clambering up the other plants in dry to moist forested lands. You can see 'ulei along many of our popular hiking trails.

'Ulei also is an attractive plant for different uses in many landscapes. It is a nice groundcover, alone or mixed with other low-growing native plants like 'ilima, pa'u o Hi'iaka, hinahina, 'ena'ena or with flowering exotic annuals. It looks great sprawling over lava or coral boulders, or clambering over a low wall. It can be trimmed as a specimen shrub or a few can be planted together to make a hedge. The flexible stems can be trained to go where you direct. They can be looped upward for a trellis decoration. With time 'ulei can even be trained into a small tree itself. It likes a wide range of growing conditions. It will grow down at the coast or up mauka. (It is found naturally from sea level to elevations of 4,000 feet.) As long as it gets plenty of sun, adequate watering and well-drained soil, 'ulei should thrive.

'Ulei can be grown from seeds or cuttings. Being a dry-forest plant, bred to grow where rainfall is unpredictable, the seeds will germinate sporadically over a long period of time (this is a good tactic for a plant to survive in a dry place, where consistent rain may or may not come, and the offspring have to be prepared for whatever falls from the sky). So be patient if you grow 'ulei from seeds. The one time I got really good germination from seeds was right after Hurricane Iniki. One month later, I collected some seeds at the urging of my lei-making friend, Brian Choy. I told him at the time, "You watch, they'll be sprouting over the next two years." But all the seeds germinated in a month. We think the hurricane shocked them all into being ready to grow right then.

Scientists call 'ulei Osteomeles anthyllidifloia and place it in the rose, loquat and apple family, the Rosaceae. It is an indigenous Hawaiian plant. That means that it got here on its own without help from people, but it also means that there are other plants like it, growing naturally, in other places. 'Ulei also grows in other parts of Polynesia and in the Bonin and Ryukyu Islands.

Heidi Bornhorst is director of Honolulu's botanical gardens — Foster, Lili'uokalani, Wahiawa, Koko Crater and Ho'omaluhia. Write to her care of The Advertiser Homestyle section, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Or e-mail her: islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com.