Puakenikeni Flowers

by Heidi Fickinger

Title

Puakenikeni Flowers

Artist

Heidi Fickinger

Medium

Photograph - Photographic Print

Description

These are Puakenikeni flowers, once of the most used flowers in leis in Hawai'i. In Polynesian legend, Mangaian, the pua tree was the tree that guarded the entrance to the land of the spirits in the underworld (Mangaia, traditionally known as Aʻuaʻu Enua (which means terraced) is the most southerly of the Cook Islands.) In Tahitian legend, the first pua tree was brought from the tenth heaven by Tane, god of the forests. Hence the tree is sacred to him, and the images of him were always made of pua wood. Indigenous from New Guinea and Northern Australia, to the Marianas and eastward to the Caroline Islands (east of the Marquesas,) it is a shrub or small tree (Fagraea berteriana) grown ornamentally for foliage, flowers and fruit. Its original Polynesian name was simply "pua" which is still used over most of its native range in Polynesia and is a cognate of the Fijian name. The tree was considered sacred in the Cooks and Tahiti in ancient times. Concoction of the inner bark was used in treating asthma and diabetes. It is grown in most Polynesian countries like Tonga, Niue, Uvea, Societies, Cooks, Australs, Mangareva, Marquesas, Samoa (pua lulu.)
Lei makers down on the Honolulu docks selling lei during the “Steamer Days” or “Boat Days” (late-1800s to mid-1900s) would string the puakenikeni into fragrant lei. It earned its name Pua Kenikeni (Puakenikeni) here in Hawaiʻi because at one time the flowers were sold for making lei, each flower (“pua”) cost a dime (kenikeni means dime, ten cents,) hence the name “ten-cent flower.”
It is one of the few flowers that has three different colors as it ages (with the same scent throughout.) The first day it’s creamy white, by the second it’s at buttery yellow and on the third it’s a creamy orange.

Featured in the following FAA Group Galleries:
* Exquisite Flowers
* USA Photographers Only
* Global Flowers Photography
* Wildflowers of the World
* Pictures for Present

Uploaded

May 25th, 2017

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