Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian language dictionaries

1. n., All species of an endemic genus of ferns (Sadleria 🌐), with trunk more or less evident. The fronds are narrower, smaller, and less divided than those of the hāpuʻu. At least one species has at the top of the trunk a mass of soft scales (pulu) used as pillow stuffing. Formerly, in times of famine, the tasteless pith of the trunk was cooked and eaten. The fronds were used to mulch dry-land taro, the stems for plaiting and as sizing for tapa. The ʻamaʻu was one of the forms that Kamapuaʻa, the pig god, could take at will.

• Related:
  • Also: maʻumaʻu, maʻu.
• References:
  • See maʻumaʻu.
  • Neal 22–3.

2. Place where ʻamaʻu ferns are found.

Tree fern (Sadleria spp.). (NEAL 22.) See Plants: Uses.

Tree fern (Sadleria spp.) living on all Hawaiian islands. It is common in the mountains of Oahu and on the lava flows around Kīlauea. It grows to about 5 feet, and is crowned with a cluster of smooth, leathery fronds. At the base of the frond stems is buried a mass of pulu, used as stuffing for pillows and mattresses. The almost tasteless pith of the trunk was cooked and eaten in time of famine. Lau hala (thatched houses) were sometimes trimmed with this fern. Its stems were used in sizing kapa and the fronds to mulch dryland taro. Halemaʻumaʻu is the pit in Kīlauea Crater, home of the ʻamaʻumaʻu fern. (NEAL 22-23.)

time of famine. Some state it is the fern referred to in the name of the crater pit Halemaʻumaʻu.

Area below the wao kanaka, consisting of ferns (SMK).