Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian language dictionaries

1. n., The beach morning-glory. (Ipomoea pes-caprae 🌐 subsp. brasiliensis), a strong vine found on sandy beaches in the tropics, the smooth, broad leaves notched at the tip; the flowers pink, bell-shaped; a white-flowered form is rare in Hawaiʻi; the fruits small, dry, round, four-seeded. Hawaiians still use the vines to drive fish into nets. Roots, stems, and seeds were used for medicine, though poisonous in large amounts.

• Examples:
  • E kā i ka pōhuehue, strike with the pōhuehue. [One hit the sea with this vine to make a rough sea for surfing, or to kill an enemy who was in the sea.]
• References:
  • Neal 709.

2. n., Poetic name for a fisherwoman's skirt, so called because the goddess Haumea draped pōhuehue, vines about herself as she fished.

3. n., A variety of yellow sweet potato.

4. n., A kind of stone used for polishing canoes.

A kind of stone used in polishing canoes.

Poetic name for a fisherwomanʻs skirt. (PE.)

Beach morning glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae). Its leaves were crushed for rubbing over the abdomen of a mother after childbirth. A clean blossom of the flower was often placed over a circumcision wound serving as a protective cap and helpful to healing.

Beach morning glory (Ipomea pes-caprae), a vigorous creeping vine. Flowers are a dusky pink. The fruit is a capsule with seeds having some cathartic value. Hawaiians formerly ate roots and stems in time of famine. They also used the vines to whip fish into nets and also to whip the sea into higher waves for surfing. (NEAL 709.)

Vine (Ipomoea pes-caprae), a beach morning glory, a vigorous creeping plant. Its thick leaves, notched at the tips, are shaped like a goatʻs foot (pes-caprae). (NEAL 709.) See Plants: Uses.

Stone used in polishing canoes.

Stone, pumice, used in polishing canoes.