Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian language dictionaries

1. n., All kinds of bamboo; reed (Mat. 27.48); flute; pipe, hose, tube; bamboo tube for preserving fish.

• Examples:
  • Puhi ʻohe, to play a wind instrument; player of a wind instrument.
  • Hula ʻohe (UL 135), dance to the music of the nose flute.
• References:
  • PPN kofe .

2. n., A coarse, jointed, native grass (Isachne distichophylla), to 190 cm high, with stiff, pointed leaves and open flowering panicle.

3. n., A native bamboo-like plant (Joinvillea ascendens), with stem about 3 m high, 2.5 cm or less in diameter, unbranched; leaf blades 60 to 90 cm by 8 to 13 cm, pointed and plaited; flowering panicle about 30 cm long.

• References:
  • Neal 166.

4. n., A native tree (Reynoldsia sandwicesis), an araliad, with leaves about 30 cm long, each leaf with seven to eleven broad leaflets with scalloped edges. (Neal 652.) The wood of this kind of tree growing at Mauna Loa, Molokaʻi, was reputed to be poisonous, was used for making poison images, and is the tree form of Kapo, a goddess. See kālaipāhoa, kauila. This tree growing elsewhere was not considered poisonous and was used for making stilts, hence it was also called ʻohe kukuluaeʻo or ʻoheokai or ʻohemakai.

5. n., A native variety of taro, thriving at altitudes above 450 m; leaf stem light-green, tinged with reddish-brown (perhaps like some variety of bamboo); the corm pink-tinted, making excellent poi.

• Examples:
  • Lele nō ka ʻohe i kona lua, the ʻohe leaps into its hole [a legendary reference; each in his own place].
• Related:
  • The term may be qualified by the colors ʻeleʻele, kea or keʻokeʻo, ʻulaʻula.
• References:
  • Whitney 58.

6. n., Variety of fish (no data).

• References:
  • See mauʻu ʻohe.

kikino, Telescope.

Musical instrument of the flute family.

All kinds of bamboo in Hawaiʻi are known as ʻohe. Vigorous underground stems, growing horizontally in crowded clumps, supply the base for shrub or tree growth. Eight genera are represented in Hawaiʻi. (NEAL 66.)

Peculiar Hawaiian tree (Reynoldsia sandwicensis). It resembles the wiliwili in that both shed their leaves during the summer months or arid season. Grows to 80 feet. It is peculiar to the very dry districts of the lowland zone, especially the ʻa a lava fields where the heat is intense and rain infrequent. The soft, whitish wood has no commercial value but was used for making kukulūaeʻo (stilts) employed by early Hawaiians in a game of the same name. (NEAL 652.)