Even if we aren’t fluent speakers or capable readers, nūpepa of the 1800s captivate. Browsing, with the help of dictionaries, always seem to yield something of interest, like this snippet from Ka Nupepe Kuokoa on Nov. 29, 1862:
“Ma ke kahawai Olenalena, loaa ia makou he Apeape, ua like pu me ka Ape ka ulu ana, a o kona lau he nui loa. Eono kapuai ke anawaena o kekahi mau lau. Ua like nae me ka lau o ka ipu Pu, ma ka ulu ana.”
At ʻŌlenalena stream, we found ʻApeʻape, which grows like ʻApe, and its leaves are very large. The diameter of some leaves is 6 feet. But they look like the leaves of a squash or pumpkin, in their manner of growth. -Translated by N. Gomes
At home on steep, very wet mountainslopes, ʻapeʻape (Gunnera petaloidea) is seen by intrepid few who venture to those locales. Its leaves are peltate: stems attach to the center bottom of circular leaves.
Like maiʻa, ʻapeʻape is a very large herb, and contains no wood. Perhaps because of where it’s found, on remote cliff faces, we don’t know that people had uses for it, but its unique size and shape captured imaginations a hundred years ago. It appeared in the February 1924 issue of National Geographic (see black and white photo) that was devoted to the Hawaiian Islands.
Go. Go hike. Go. Be outside and pay attention.
