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Plants in Hawaiian Culture: Home

Table of Contents

Holoholona (animals)

Lāʻau (plants)

Lāʻau Lapaʻau (medicinal plants)

Loko Iʻa (fishponds)

Ke Kai (ocean)

Shoreline Erosion

Lēʻahi (Diamond Head)

Hawaiʻi Place Names

Websites

Māla Māunuunu
Māla Māunuunu is a Native Hawaiian dryland garden at Kapiʻolani Community College. Visit the site for information on upcoming workdays, workshops, and other mālama ʻāina opportunities.

Native Plants Hawaiʻi
A comprehensive and searchable knowledgebase that seeks to promote the understanding and use of native Hawaiian plants.
Hawaiian Ethnobotany Online Database
Hawaiian Native Plant Genera: UHM Botany Dept.
An excellent source for images of plants.
Plants of Hawaii
Over 100,000 images of 2,500 species. The personal collection of biologists Forest & Kim Starr. All the images are free to use, with attribution.
Botany Online Collections (maintained by Bishop Museum)
Includes these databases: Natural Sciences Taxonomic Name and Specimen Search, Hawaiian Vascular Plant Checklist, Annotated Checklist of Cultivated Plants of Hawaiʻi, Invasive Algae Database, etc.
Hawaiʻi's Endangered Plants
Canoe Plants of Ancient Hawaiʻi
Ka Hā ‘Ō Ka ‘Āina, The Life Breath of the Land
Site includes a photo gallery of 30+ endangered, endemic, and indigenous plants. Some entries include cultural/historical uses and moʻolelo.
Go Native: Growing a Native Hawaiian Urban Forest
Project of the Hawaiʻi Forest Institute

Article

"Hawaiian Medicinal Plants" by Kenneth M. Nagata
A compilation of plants which are known to have been used by the Hawaiians for medicinal purposes and includes introduced species as well as many endemics.

Books @ Kapiʻolani CC Library

These books are located in the Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection on the 1st floor of Kapiʻolani CC Library. Search for more books in the library catalog.

Plants in Hawaiian Medicine by Beatrice H. Krauss; Martha Noyes
Call Number: DU624.65 .K73 2001
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection, 1st floor)
Available online from eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
Plants in Hawaiian Culture by Beatrice H. Krauss
Call Number: DU624.65 K72 1993
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection, 1st floor)
See chapter on "Medicine and Medicinal Herbs."
Lāʻau Hawaiʻi: Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Plants by Isabella Aiona Abbott
Call Number: QK473.H4 A33 1992
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection-1st floor)
See chapter 13 on "Medicines and Healing."
Native Planters in Old Hawaii: Their Life, Lore, and Environment by E.S. Craighill Handy, Elizabeth Green Handy, & Mary Kawena Pukui
Call Number: GN424 .H3
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection, 1st floor)
See pt. 2: Plants and Animals for therapeutic and cultural uses of Hawaiian plants.
Kāhuna Lāʻau Lapaʻau: Hawaiian Herbal Medicine by June Gutmanis; Theodore Kelsey (translations); Susan G. Monden (illustrations)
Call Number: QK99.H3 G88 2004
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection-1st floor)
Native Hawaiian Medicine. Vol. III by Rev. David Kaluna Kaʻaiakamanu and Malcolm Nāea Chun
Call Number: QK99.H3 K36 2003
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection-1st floor)
Medicine at Your Feet: Healing Plants of the Hawaiian Kingdom
Call Number: QK99.H3 L46 1998
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection-1st floor)
Buke ʻOihana Lapaʻau me nā ʻApu Lāʻau Hawaiʻi (Book of Medical Practices and Hawaiian Prescriptions) by Thomas (Kamaki) P. Spencer (Editor)
Call Number: GN477.4 .B85 2003 (Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection - 1st floor)
Folk Remedies from Hawaiʻi by Ann Kondo Corum
Call Number: QK99.H3 C67 1987
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection, 1st floor)
Ethnobotany of the Hawaiians by Beatrice H. Krauss
Call Number: DU624.65 .K7
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection-1st floor)
Plants of Old Hawaiʻi by Lois Lucas
Call Number: DU624.65 L84 1982
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection, 1st floor)
Available online from eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
Hawaiʻi's Native Plants
Call Number: QK473.H4 B64 2004
(Hawaiian Collection)
Growing Native Hawaiian Plants
Call Number: SB439.24.H3 B67 2005
(Hawaiian Collection)
A Native Hawaiian Garden by John L. Culliney; Bruce P. Koebele
Call Number: SB439.24.H3 C85 1999
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection, 1st floor)
Available online from eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
Traditional Trees of Pacific Islands
Call Number: SB171.I746 T73 2006
(Hawaiian Reference)
Noni: the complete guide for consumers and growers
Call Number: QK495.R85 N45 2006
Hawaiian Collection
Ancient Hawaiian Civilization: A Series of Lectures Delivered at the Kamehameha Schools
Call Number: DU624.5 A6 1965
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection, 1st floor)
See Ch. 24: Medicine
Nānā i ke Kumu = Look to the Source (vol. 1) by Mary Kawena Pukui; E. W. Haertig; Catherine A. Lee
Call Number: DU624.5 P85
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection, 1st floor)
Describes Hawaiian cultural practices, concepts, and beliefs.
Also available online via Ulukau.
A Tropical Garden Flora: Plants Cultivated in the Hawaiian Islands and Other Tropical Places by George Staples; Derral R. Herbst
Call Number: QK473.H4 S75 2005
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection-1st floor)
Limu: An Ethnobotanical Study of Some Edible Hawaiian Seaweeds by Isabella Aiona Abbott
Call Number: QK578.H4 A22 (Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection, 1st floor)
Plants and Animals of Hawaii
Call Number: QH198.H3 S36 1991 (Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection)

Reference Books @ Kapiʻolani CC Library

Native Plants Used As Medicine in Hawaii by Beatrice H. Krauss
Call Number: QK99.H3 K73 1981
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Reference-Ask for Assistance)

The books are located in the Hawaiʻi & Pacific Reference Collection and are for library use only. Request them at the Circulation Desk.

Hawaiian Medicine Book = He Buke Laau Lapaau by Malcolm Naea Chun
Call Number: QK99.H3 H38 1986
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Reference-Ask for Assistance)
Ethnobotany of Hawaii by Beatrice H. Krauss
Call Number: QK471 .K72
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Reference, Ask for Assistance)
Kahua Kukui: Ethnobotany of the Hawaiians by R. Hikoula Hanapi
Call Number: QK473.H4 H36 1996
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Reference, Ask for Assistance)
Also available online via eVols.
Hawaiian Heritage Plants by Angela K. Kepler
Call Number: QK473.H4 K46 1998
Hawaiian Reference
Amy Greenwell Garden Ethnobotanical Guide to Native Hawaiian Plants & Polynesian-Introduced Plants
Call Number: QK473.H4 .A53 2009
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection-1st floor)
Hawaiian ʻAwa: Views of an Ethnobotanical Treasure
Call Number: RS165.K3 H393 2006
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Reference-Ask for Assistance)
Polynesian Herbal Medicine by W. Arthur Whistler
Call Number: QK99.P75 W45 1992
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Reference-Ask for Assistance)
Plants of the Canoe People by W. Arthur Whistler
Call Number: GN476.73 .W55 2009
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection-1st floor)
Ancient Hawaiian Life by E. H. Bryan
Call Number: DU624.5 B7 1938
(Hawaiʻi & Pacific Reference-Ask for Assistance)
See chapter: "Medicine, death, burial."

Also available online via HathiTrust Digital Library.
Remains of a Rainbow
Call Number: QH76.5.H3 L55 2001 (Hawaiʻi & Pacific Collection-1st floor)