ʻūlei

Photo: Indeterminate — Public domain · source

Survives zone 8 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Small white fruit, bland to mildly sweet with a flavor reminiscent of rose petals — a traditional Hawaiian nibbling fruit rather than a substantial crop, historically also used to dye kapa cloth lavender to purple. Care: Winter protection — mulch, fleece, or a warm wall.

Hardiness

Zone 8–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Sprawling shrub 0.5–2 m tall but spreading 2–3 m wide, the flexible branches lying along the ground; erect to about 3 m where it has support

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Hawaii, and east through the Cook Islands and Tonga to the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands — coastal cliffs, old lava flows and dry to mesic shrubland from sea level to about 2,300 m.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate and pinnate, 5–10 cm overall, with 15–25 tiny neat leaflets each under 1 cm. Nothing else in the catalogue's rose family looks like it — the impression is of a small vetch or acacia rather than a relative of the hawthorns.

Root system

Shallow, tough and wide-spreading, with the trailing branches striking root where they lie. That habit is why ʻūlei is a standard plant for binding raw cinder and eroding slopes in Hawaiian restoration planting.

Fruit description

A small white pome about 1 cm, sweetish and mealy with a faint scent of rose petals, ripening through summer and autumn. A nibbling fruit rather than a crop; the juice was traditionally used to dye kapa cloth lavender to purple.

Propagation

Fresh seed, cuttings, or simply severing a rooted layer where a branch has struck — layering is easiest, and the plant does most of the work itself.

Pollination

Self-fertile

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.