''Myoporum sandwicense'', commonly known as ''naio'', bastard sandalwood or false sandalwood is a species of

flowering Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

plant in the figwort

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Scrophulariaceae The Scrophulariaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the figwort family. The plants are annual and perennial herbs, as well as shrubs. Flowers have bilateral (zygomorphic) or rarely radial (actinomorphic) symmetry. The Scr ...

. It is a

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

highly variable in its form, the size and shape of its leaves, in the number of flowers in a group and in the shape of its fruit. It is native to the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

and the island of ʻEua in

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

Description

''Myoporum sandwicense'' grows as either a small tree, large tree, or dwarf shrub, depending on the elevation and conditions. As a small tree, it reaches a height of with a trunk diameter of . The largest naio have a height of and a trunk diameter of . At the

tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

, naio grows as a shrub. The bark on older specimens is often dark, rough and furrowed. The leaves are arranged alternately, often crowded near the ends of the stems, mostly long, wide, elliptic to lance-shaped and with a distinct mid-vein on the lower surface.

Flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are present all year and are arranged in groups of 2 to 6 in leaf axils on stalks long. They are a tubular bell shape with a fragrant odor and there are 5 lance-shaped

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s and 5

petal Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corol ...

s forming the tube. The tube is generally white or pink with darker blotches at the base of the lobes and the tube is usually long with lobes about the same length. The fruit is a waxy white

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...

that is in diameter, juicy, and bitter to taste. The fruit usually dry out and remain attached to the branch.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described as ''Polycoelium sandwicense'' by

Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (27 October 18064 April 1893) was a French-Swiss botanist, the son of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. Biography De Candolle, son of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, first devot ...

in 1847. In 1862

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botany, botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' (1876) was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessaril ...

renamed the species ''Myoporum sandwicense'' in '' Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences''. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''sandwicense'' refers to the Sandwich Islands, the name given by

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

to the

, where the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

specimen was collected. There are two subspecies: *''Myoporum sandwicense'' A.Gray subsp. ''sandwicense'' which occurs on all the Hawaiian Islands and has fruit which is oval to almost spherical; *''Myoporum sandwicense'' subsp. ''lanaiensis'' ( G.L.Webster) Chinnock which is only found on Lanai and has fruit which is cone-shaped to lens-shaped. In 1951 Grady Webster included a form found in the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

as ''Myoporum sandwicense'' subsp. ''wilderi'' but it is now known as '' Myoporum wilderi'' Skottsb. Some sources describe varieties including ''degeneri'' Webster, ''fauriei'' (Levl.) Kraenzlin, ''st.-johnii'' Webster, and ''stellatum'' Webster. In addition, a prostrate, shrubby variety known as ''naio papa'' ("flat ''naio''") grows only at South Point on the

island of Hawaii Hawaii is the List of islands of the United States by area, largest island in the United States, located in the Hawaii, state of Hawaii, the southernmost state in the union. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcani ...

and is characterized by its similarities to creeping shrubs.

Distribution and habitat

The distribution of ''M. sandwicense'' in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

is limited to the state of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. Within the state, it is found on all of the major islands at elevations from sea level to . ''Naio'' can be found in a variety of habitats, including low shrublands,

dry forests The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

, mesic forests, and wet forests, but is most common in subalpine shrublands.

Uses

Indigenous uses

The finely-textured wood of ''M. sandwicense'' is hard and has a

specific gravity Relative density, also called specific gravity, is a dimensionless quantity defined as the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for solids and liquids is nea ...

of 0.55.

Native Hawaiians Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was settled at least 800 years ago by Polynesian ...

, who called the wood ''aaka'', used it to make ''manu'' (bow and stern ornamental end pieces) and ''pale'' ( gunwales) for ''waa'' (

outrigger canoe Outrigger boats are various watercraft featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull (watercraft), hull. They can range from small dugout (boat), dugout canoes to large ...

s), ''pou'' (house posts), ''haha ka upena'' (

fishing net A fishing net or fish net is a net (device), net used for fishing. Fishing nets work by serving as an improvised fish trap, and some are indeed rigged as traps (e.g. #Fyke nets, fyke nets). They are usually wide open when deployed (e.g. by cast ...

spacers), and ''lamalama'' (long-burning torches for night

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

). The oily wood was also used as a substitute for ''iliahi'' (''

Santalum ''Santalum'' is a genus of woody flowering plants in the Santalaceae family, the best known and most commercially valuable of which is the Indian sandalwood tree, '' S. album''. Members of the genus are trees or shrubs. Most are root parasit ...

'' spp.) due to the similarity in smell when burned.

Horticulture

''M. sandwicense'' can be cultivated using

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

s separated from the

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

- the average

germination Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, ...

time varies by reports but is most commonly noted as taking between six and eighteen months. Propagation by

cutting Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force. Implements commonly used for wikt:cut, cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the sca ...

s and air layering is also possible.

Other uses

For a short time in the 19th century after most ''Iliahi'' ''( Santalum freycinetianum)'' had been harvested, ''naio'' was exported to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, where it was made into

incense Incense is an aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremonial reasons. It ...

and burned in Joss houses. ''See also Thrum's Hawaiian Annual''

References

External links

*
''Myoporum sandwicense'' (naio) information
from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR)
''Myoporum sandwicense'' (naio) images
from Forest & Kim Starr {{Taxonbar, from=Q3331467 sandwicense Flora of Hawaii Trees of Hawaii Biota of Hawaii (island) Biota of Kauai Biota of Maui Biota of Molokai Biota of Oahu Flora of Tonga Plants described in 1847 Taxa named by Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle