Broadleaf 'aiea is a small Hawaiian native tree in the nightshade family, found in dry and mesic forests on several islands. It is threatened in the wild and is rarely grown outside native plant collections, so care advice is limited.
Family
Solanaceae (Nightshade family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly during the growing season and let the top of the soil dry slightly between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained loam or a gritty mix.
Temperature
18–29 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Hard
Native range
Hawaiian Is.
Climate
seasonally dry tropical
About
Nothocestrum latifolium, commonly known as broadleaf ʻaiea, is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family, Solanaceae, that is endemic to Hawaiʻi. It can be found in dry and mesic forests at elevations of 460–1,530 m (1,510–5,020 ft) on the islands of Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Oʻahu, and Kauaʻi. Broadleaf ʻaiea is threatened by habitat loss. The CDP of ʻAiea on Oʻahu was named after this species.
Uses
Native Hawaiians used the soft, greenish wood of ʻaiea to make pale (gunwales) for waʻa (outrigger canoes) and ʻaho (thatching sticks).The reddish yellow berries were sometimes eaten, while the bark and leaves were used for (unspecified) medicinal purposes.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Nothocestrum latifolium 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.