She was born with the name Lydia Lili‘u Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamaka‘eha. This column celebrates our beloved Queen Liliuokalani’s most cherished blossom, the crown flower (Calotropis gigantea), or pua kalaunu in Hawaiian — also known as liliu on Niihau.
Crown flower is native to Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and China. It is now naturalized throughout the New World tropics, the Caribbean and from Mexico to Brazil. It grows scattered in common dry coastal areas, up to the 600-foot elevation. It thrives in a divergent variety of soils. Being unpalatable to grazing animals like cattle, sheep and horses allows it to prosper.
The lilac-purple pua kalaunu arrived in Hawaii in about 1871 to 1888. The white-flowered variety came from India about 1920.
A classic school science experiment during my small-kid time was to observe the ethereal metamorphosis of the monarch caterpillar into its butterfly anatomy: Capture a caterpillar, place in large glass jar, feed with fresh pua kalaunu leaves and experience the transformation into pupa (chrysalis), then an emerging butterfly. The Hawaiian name for the orange and black, zebra-striped monarch butterfly is pulelehua pua kalaunu.
Crown flower is an evergreen shrub or small tree. Shrubs are often thick with leaves. Tiny trees form an aerial crest of a few contorted branches. The broadly elliptic or oblong opposite leaves are sessile (nearly stalkless). The pale green leaves are somewhat leathery with a pallid yellow explicit midvein. Young leaves are whitish-green underneath and coated with soft, downy hairs.
The lavender or white flowers resemble petite, elegant crowns of royalty. The green follicle fruit is kidney shaped, turning brown when mature. Numerous seeds are encapsulated in the coarse fruit fiber.
Sturdy plant fibers produced by pua kalaunu are known commercially as bowstrings. Thread, ropes, carpets and fishing nets are fashioned from this bowstring. Inner bark fiber was once manufactured into fabric for nobility.
Fruit fiber, known as floss, is employed for stuffing. Charcoal is processed from the wood. A fermented concoction of the plant combined with salt is used to remove goat and sheep hair from their skins to create leather, especially for economical bookbinding.
The entire plant, or the roots, root bark, leaves or flowers, either alone or with other biologics, is a traditional plant medicine used to treat cough, colds, asthma, elephantiasis, eczema, indigestion, rheumatism, fevers, nausea and vomiting. Avoid any contact with the milky, sticky sap that exudes from the stems and branches.
In Hawaii four styles of pua kalaunu leis are crafted. Most common is kui pololei, where flower crowns are strung straight through their centers.
Lei poepoe — stringing through the sides or stems of blossoms — fashions roundish lei. Crafting only pua kalaunu petals by this method also creates voluptuous lei.
For myself, crown flower always evokes an image of our cherished Queen Liliuokalani, royally draped in flowing lei of pua kalaunu.
Duane Choy is a native Hawaiian plant specialist. Reach him at HanaHou@ecologyfund.net.
