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Leptecophylla tameiameiae
Also called Kamehameha styphelia, `a`ali`i mahu, Kanehoa, Kawa`u (Lana`i, Maui), Maiele, Maieli, Puakeawe
Hawaiian heather is a hardy, variable native shrub or small tree from Hawaii and the Marquesas, found from dry forest to alpine bogs. It grows very slowly and is hard to propagate from seed, so it is usually grown from wild-collected or nursery stock.
Leptecophylla tameiameiae, known as pūkiawe or maiele in the Hawaiian language, is a species of flowering plant that is native to the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands.
The specific epithet honors King Kamehameha I, who formed the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. It grows as a tree up to 4.6 m (15 ft) tall in forests and as a shrub 0.9–3 m (3.0–9.8 ft) in height elsewhere. Its small needle-like leaves are whitish underneath, dark green above. The round berries range in color from white through shades of pink to red. Pūkiawe is found in a variety of habitats in Hawaii at elevations of 15–3,230 m (49–10,597 ft), including mixed mesic forests, wet forests, bogs, and alpine shrublands.
Pūkiawe is a hardy, adaptive, and morphologically variable plant that occupies a variety of ecosystems, from dry forest up to alpine bogs and shrublands. Despite being common, it is difficult to propagate, taking months to years for seeds to germinate and growing very slowly.
Mingimingi · Leptecophylla mariannensis · Crimson Berry · Mountain Pinkberry · Leptecophylla · Styphelia erubescens · Coast beard-heath
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Leptecophylla tameiameiae by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
