Maʻo
Gossypium tomentosum
Shrubs with pale green palmate leaves which have a light covering of silvery hairs called tomentose, which is how it gets its name. The flowers are very attractive being bright yellow, opening in the morning and closing by the next day. After the flowers are pollinated they develop into hard seed capsules about an inch in diameter. When the capsules become ripe they dry up and crack open revealing the small light brown cotton balls within. Unlike the commercial cotton we are used to seeing this type of cotton has short hairs making them not as useful as the other one. Ma’o can reach heights of three to four feet tall.
He lāʻau pūnohunohu (ʻekolu a ʻehā kapuaʻi ke kiʻekiʻe); lau ʻōmaʻomaʻo/hinahina. He mau pua melemele nani i mohala i ke kakahiaka a mae i kahi lā aʻe. Ke hua ka maʻo, he hua paʻa e nahā ana. Ke nahā ka hua, e ʻike ʻia ana ka hulu o ka maʻo. ʻAʻole naʻe like kēia hulu me ka hulu maʻo i humuhumu ʻia i lole.
This is an increasingly rare plant now listed as threatened but still found in limited populations on all of the main islands except Hawai’i in dry, rocky coastal sites up to about 300 ft. in elevation.
Ke emi nei ka maʻo i kēia mau lā. Ulu nō i ka ʻāina pōhaku a ma ka ʻāina maloʻo.
Ma’o can be strung into lei but primarily this plant was used to make a green dye, hence the name ma’o (green), but it was made from the yellow flowers.
Kui ʻia ka maʻo i lei, akā he wai hoʻoluʻu ʻōmaʻomaʻo ko nā pua.
This is the perfect plant for the xeric gardener or for anybody interested in a brown-thumb friendly plant. It is basic to take care of and requires practically no water once established. It makes a nice low, dense border plant, not hedge, it looks better if left to look natural and not hedge shaped. If you do have to cut it back use a pair of clippers and remove only the areas you need to. The more sun and less water you give it the more silvery the foliage will become. Look out for aphids and white flies but both are easy to take care of with store bought pesticides. Plants that are grown slower, with less watering that build up a more silvery sheen will be a little less vulnerable to pests.
Maʻalahi ka mālama ʻana i ka maʻo. ʻAʻole pono ka wai he nui, a e aho e waiho i ka maʻo. Mai paʻipaʻi ka maʻo i pā, ʻoiai ʻano ʻē paha ka nānā ʻana. E kanu i kahi e pā nui ai ka lā. No ka hinahina ʻana o ka lau, mai hāinu nui. E makaʻala i nā ʻeleao a me nā nalo keʻokeʻo. ʻOi aku ka ikaika o ka maʻo hinahina i ka wai liʻiliʻi.
This plant help save the American cotton industry when it was hybridized with the commercial cotton to prevent further destruction caused from the caterpillar of a butterfly which fed on the nectar of the plant. The ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi cotton lacks the flavor lactones within the nectar which would otherwise attract the butterfly to the commercial cotton, but it was the butterfly’s caterpillar that would inflict the damage on the cotton plant. Now without the good nectar the butterflies don’t show up.
I ka pilikia ʻana o ka maʻo ʻAmelika i nā peʻelua, ua kōkua ka maʻo Hawaiʻi. Ua ʻono ia mau peʻelua i ka wai o ka maʻo, akā nele nō ka maʻo Hawaiʻi i ia wai momona. ʻO ka maʻo e mahi ʻia i kēia mau lā, he kūʻauhau Hawaiʻi.