If you travel from the western border of Kaupo at Waiopai going east, you will see the land gradually transform from arid grassland to sparse trees and finally to dense forests.
However, nearly every tree that you see along the way is an invasive species introduced since Westerners arrived. These include kiawe, christmas berry, koa haole and strawberry guava.
Naturally, the landscape looked much different before Western contact, when Kaupo was filled with native trees brought by currents and birds, and later by Hawaiians. Here is a look at some of those.
Koa
Koa was highly prized by the Hawaiians of old, notably for canoes. Koa trees can still be found high on the slopes of Haleakala, but it is clear that these trees used to be common at lower elevations as well.
How do we know this? One source is surveyors’ property descriptions from the 1800s. An example of this is Royal Patent Grant 2510 to a certain Kamakolu in 1858. The measurements of the property lead off with “E hoomaka ana ma ke kihi Kom. Akau ma ke kahi Kumu Laau Koa” (Beginning at the northwest corner at a koa tree.)
Koa trees appear in a number of other property descriptions. Plotting a selection of these located in central Kaupo reveals a band of koa trees in the 1,000-2,000 elevation range, as shown below (land grants range from the 1850s to 1870s). One of the properties mentioned contained two separate koa groves.
In 1910, koa was still present in this area, according to a newspaper article about lumber harvesting:
Believing it will be a paying proposition to negotiate with the lumber dealers in Japan, the Hawaii Lumber Mill Company, a Japanese corporation formed under the laws of the Territory, will send its first shipment of koa lumber, in the near future, to Japan, where it is said the price is extraordinarily high.
According to Mukuno, one of the right-hand men of the local concern, the company has been cutting down and milling some koa trees in Kaupo, Maui. The land on which the koa trees stood belongs to N. Omsted of Hana.
The company has purchased all the koa trees on the land, and it is the intention of the shareholders of the company to send the famous Hawaii koa lumber to Japan, where, it is said, it is in great demand.
Evening Bulletin, March 3, 1910
Omsted refers to Nils Omsted, then the owner of Mokulau Ranch. Although the exact location of the ranch is unknown, the areas with koa trees shown on the map above were in the general vicinity of Mokulau.
Even western Kaupo had koa trees, though the land has since been stripped by goats and is now arid. As late as 1879, Pahihi Gulch had koa at approximately 2,000 feet elevation, as described in Royal Patent Grant 2743. This area is now being fenced and replanted under the Leeward Haleakala Watershed Restoration Partnership and Uhiwai O Haleakala organizations.
Kea
Kea was a type of hardwood true once common in the Nuu region, according to a Hawaiian-language newspaper article from 1857. Benjamin, a Kipahulu resident, described the tree this way:
E ka Hae Hawaii e:
Aloha oe; eia kekahi laau hou a'u i ike ai, aia mauka o Nuu, i Kaupo, kahi i ulu ai keia laau. O ka inoa o keia laau he Kea; he laau maikai, e ninau mai auanei paha oukou e ka poe heluhelu, "heaha ka maikai o ia laau?" eia kona maikai, o kona paakiki, oolea loa, o ka oi keia o na laau paakiki i ulu ma keia pae aina, o kona kino ua eleele a oolea loa, o kona lau ua like me ka lau o ka Uhiuhi; maikai keia laau no ke kukulu hale, ina komo keia laau i ka lepo aole popopo, ke olelo mai nei na kamaaina o Kaupo, he 25 makahiki o kekahi hale, aole nae he popopo, kanaha a keu ko kekahi, he laau kamaaina keia ma Kaupo; aka, no ka paakiki loa o keia laau; ua oi kona paakiki mamua o ka hao, ina e hookomo ia ka hao iloko o ka lepo a nui na makahiki i hala, alaila, ano e kona, aole pela keia laau; oia hoi ke kumu o ko'u hoolaha ana i ike ai ko'u mau makamaka, kupono keia laau ke kukulu ia ma na wahi lepo, e like me Lahaina, Honolulu, Hilo, me na wahi e ae.
Ua olelo mai na kamaaina, ma Kaupo wale no i ulu ai keia laau, aole ma na wahi e ae o Maui nei, he mau laau oolea e ae no kekahi i ike ia, Kapua, Mamani, Aa'lii, aole nae kekahi o lakou i like me keia. Aloha kaua.
BENIAMINA.
Kipahulu, Maui H., Nov. 5, 1857.
(Dear Hae Hawaii:
Greetings. Here is a new tree I have seen that grows in the uplands of Nuu, in Kaupo. The name of this tree is kea. It is an excellent tree. You readers may ask, “Why is it so good?” Here is why it is useful: because it is hard, extremely stiff, the hardest of any wood growing in these islands. Its trunk is black and strong. Its leaves are like that of the uhiuhi. This tree is good for building houses. If this wood is placed in dirt it does not rot. The natives of Kaupo say that houses 25 years old show no rot. Some are 40 years or older. This tree is native to Kaupo. This wood is harder than iron. If iron is put in dirt for many years, then it deteriorates. Not so with this wood. The reason I am writing this is so that my friends know that this is a good wood for building in dirt areas such as Lahaina, Honolulu, Hilo and other areas.
The locals say that Kaupo is the only place the tree grows, nowhere else on Maui. There are other strong woods known such as kapua, mamani and aalii, but none are like this. Farewell.
BENJAMIN
Kipahulu, East Maui, Nov. 5, 1857)
Although Benjamin wrote that kea was only found in Nuu, this does not appear to be the case. In the 1888 book Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, botanist William Hillebrand described the species Mezoneurum Kauaiense, noting that local names included kea and kalamona. According to Hillebrand, the tree was also present on Kauai and Oahu. "The wood is hard-grained and dark,” he noted.
Kea also appeared in The Indigenous Trees of the Hawaiian Islands, by botanist Joseph Rock (published in 1913). Although Benjamin implied that kea and uhiuhi were separate types of trees, Rock disagreed:
"The tree is known by the natives as Uhiuhi on Kauai and Hawaii, while on Maui, along Kaupo, the southern outlet of Haleakala crater, it is known as Kea. … The wood of the Uhiuhi is extremely hard, close-grained, and very durable; it is of almost black color."
Wauke
Hawaiians used the bark of wauke (paper mulberry) to make cloth. In the origin legend of wauke, a man named Maikoha turned into this tree. This mythical transformation happened in Kaupo, according to a version of the legend recorded by 19th-century ethnologist Abraham Fornander.
Apart from legend, wauke seems to have been plentiful in Kaupo. On a visit to Kaupo in 1929, archaeologist Winslow Walker recorded a site associated with kapa, the cloth produced from wauke: "Tapa-drying platform: At Pohakunahaha near the hill of Keanawai just above the road. It is a raised platform 22 x 45 feet with a very smooth pavement of beach pebbles, cinders, and coral. An old native remembered seeing a grass house near there long ago."
Walker went on to Nuu. In his notes about a heiau (temple) called Halekou, Walker wrote: "Wauke plants from which tapa was made grew best in this kind of country. One of them was found growing on the heiau itself at the western end."
Although rare, wauke grow in isolated areas of Nuu to this day.
Wiliwili
Wiliwili is one of the most abundant native trees in Kaupo today, despite widespread damage from an invasive wasp in recent years. In fact, Nuu hosts one of the largest wiliwili forests in the island chain. Thus, it is no surprise to find references to wiliwili in legends and historical writings about Kaupo.
In the book Legends of Ma-ui—A Demi God of Polynesia and of his Mother Hina (1910), historian William Westervelt recounted the story of Maui lassoing the sun to slow its daily journey:
"He went up the mountain to Kaupo to the place Hina had directed. There was a large wiliwili tree. … Maui dug a hole among the roots of the tree and concealed himself." According to Westervelt, Maui hid in that tree until the sun appeared over the rim of Haleakala Crater.
Wiliwili trees also served as a warning system for sharks. An article in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa in 1863 addressed a shark attack in Kaupo. "Eia keia 'Pua ka Wiliwili nanahu Kamano',” the author wrote ("Note that, 'When the wiliwili bloom, the sharks bite'").
In 1960, Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui interviewed Kaupo resident Josephine Marciel, then 71 years old. Marciel confirmed the old saying about wiliwili flowers and sharks, but added, "Nowadays, nobody believes those things. Any old time they go to the beach."
Wiliwili trees bloom in a variety of colors, including red, orange and yellow. According to Marciel, the yellow variety is native to the region. Like Nuu, Keaku Valley (the location of Marciel's house) still contains many wiliwili trees. Marciel told Pukui the reason there were so many such trees there:
"You plant wiliwili so you don’t have to put posts all the time, because they’re everlasting. That’s the idea, so that’s why we plant wiliwili around here."
Marciel had lived in Keaku Valley since the 1920s, but evidently residents were planting wiliwili in the valley long before she moved there. The original land grant for the property that Marciel eventually owned was issued in 1856. The surveyor recorded wiliwili trees at three separate points along the property boundary line (in addition to koa and kukui).
The land grant for a neighboring property in Keaku Valley was issued in 1862. Curiously, the surveyor described one boundary point at "ke kumu wiliwili Aupuni" (the government wiliwili tree).
Other trees
The trees mentioned above are not the only native trees found in Kaupo. In The Indigenous Trees of the Hawaiian Islands, the 1913 book mentioned in the section about kea, Joseph Rock noted many other species, most growing in Kaupo Gap and Haleakala Crater. These trees include iliahi (sandalwood), hoawa, ae and naenae. Ohia trees are also common in the forests east of Kaupo Gap.
