DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
- herbaceous plant with no woody stems
- leaves up to two feet long, narrow, upward pointing and growing from an overlapping basal cluster
- leaves folded lengthwise, with an elongate concave trough in the center of the leaf
- upper surface of leaf shiny green and the lower surface white-silver; no spines on edge
- a native lily whose cream colored flowers are numerous and small, not showy
TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN USES
- silvery leaf epidermis stripped and used with other foliage in making lei
- whole leaves now commonly used in lei
RAIN FOREST ECOLOGY
- shallow rooted; vulnerable to pig rototilling activities; leaves very palatable to pigs
- a few scattered individuals of pa`iniu, a shade tolerant species, survived four decades of kahili ginger dominance
- pa`iniu now spreading vegetatively from surviving individuals in over 50 sites in Ni`aulani, even under dense tree fern canopy, now that it’s protected from pigs and ginger
- pa`iniu also grows in Ni`aulani on nurse logs or lateral tree branches
HOW TO SAY “PA`INIU” IN HAWAIIAN