Aleurites moluccana
COMMON NAME | Candle Nut or KuKui Nut Tree |
TYPE | Tree |
FAMILY | Euphorbiaceae |
NOTES | Grows to a height of
49–82 ft, with wide spreading or pendulous branches. The trilobed leaves are
pale green with a almost silvery look for a distance. The nuts kernel serves
as the source of oil, and is covered with a thin layer of secondary seed
coat. In ancient Hawaiʻi, kukui nuts
were burned to provide light. The nuts were strung in a row on a palm leaf
midrib, lit on one end, and burned one by one every 15 minutes or so. This
led to their use as a measure of time. Hawaiians also extracted the oil from
the nut and burned it in a stone oil lamp called a kukui hele po (light,
darkness goes) with a wick made of kapa cloth. Hawaiians also had many other uses for the
tree, including: leis from the shells, leaves, and flowers; ink for tattoos
from charred nuts; a varnish with the oil; and fishermen would chew the nuts
and spit them on the water to break the surface tension and remove
reflections, giving them greater underwater visibility. A red-brown dye made
from the inner bark was used on kapa and aho (Touchardia latifolia cordage).
A coating of kukui oil helped preserve ʻupena (fishing nets). The nohona waʻa
(seats), pale (gunwales) of waʻa (outrigger canoes) were made from the wood.
The trunk was sometimes used to make smaller canoes used for fishing. Kukui
was named the state tree of Hawaii on 1 May 1959 due to its multitude of
uses. It also represents the island of Molokaʻi, whose symbolic color is the
silvery green of the kukui leaf. |
GEOGRAPHIC REGION | Widespread geographic range from China
to Australia. It is also widely naturalized in the South Pacific, Africa,
South America and the Caribbean. |
NATIVE HABITAT | Found in tropical
forests, up to about 1,200 m altitude. It can also colonize disturbed sites
and waste areas, and are often found at the forest margins, along road sides
and in riparian vegetation. |
WEB SOURCES |
