Hawaiian Flowers

The Malay apple is much admired for the beauty of  its flowers and its colorful, glistening fruits, without parallel in the family Myrtaceae. Botanically recognized as Syzygium malaccense, this species has earned a few alternate common names including Malay rose-apple, mountain apple and water apple. It is the pseudofruit or swollen fruit-stalk of the cashew nut due to its resemblance to the cashew apple.

Syzygium Malaccense

There are 7 names (or perhaps even more now) of the Malay Apple in Hawai’i; ‘ohi‘a ‘ai, ‘ohi‘a, ‘ohi‘a ‘ai ke‘oke‘o, ‘ohi‘a hakea, ‘ohi‘a kea, ‘ohi‘a leo, and ‘ohi‘a ‘ula. It is now cultivated throughout the tropics, especially in Indo-Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Polynesia (where it was an ancient introduction as far east as Hawai‘i), and Micronesia (where it is apparently a modern introduction in the eastern part of its range, Pohnpei and Kosrae). In some places, such as in Melanesia (e.g., Vanuatu and Fiji), it appears to be naturalized. In Hawai‘i, it is common in forest groves that are probably remnants of former cultivation, but the tree does not readily spread from these.

An inflorescence of short, few-flowered cymes up to 6 cm (2.4 in) long is borne on the trunk or older branches. Calyx turbinate, 1.2–1.8 cm (0.5–0.7 in) long, notched to form 4 pale yellow, rounded lobes 4–6 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long. Corolla with 4, red or pink (rarely white), suborbicular petals 7–11 mm (0.3–0.4 in) long, early caducous. Ovary inferior, style long, with a simple style up to 2.5 cm (1 in) long. Stamens many (ca. 200), free, red, 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in.) long. Flowering is usually seasonal, from 1–2 months in dura tion, but it varies widely from place to place and even from year to year. In some areas, Malay apple flowers two or three times per year. It occurs mostly in the spring (August–November) in the South Pacific, but from May–February in Fiji, in February and from June–October in Vanuatu, and from May–June on Java. In Hawai‘i, lying north of the equator, it flowers from March–April, and in Pohnpei flowering apparently occurs twice a year, in November– December, and again in April–May. Trees begin flowering at an age of 7–8 years.

Malay Apple

 The flowers are very attractive but fragile and not easily used. After picking, they soon shed numerous red stamens. Early sources in Fiji noted “the natives gathering handfuls of them [the showy red stamens] to strew on their heads.” In Hawai‘i both blossoms and fruit were used to make leis.

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