Botanical Name: Scaevola sericea.
Scaevola sericea is sometimes called half-flower.
Naupaka blossoms are not incomplete, they appear to be only half a flower because all the petals are on one side.
The flowers are white or cream colored, often with purple streaks.They have an irregular shape with all all five petals on one side of the flower making them appear to have been torn in half.
There are two types of naupaka.
Mountain naupaka evolved from beach naupaka. Beach naupaka is indigenous to Hawaii and throughout the tropical and subtropical zones of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
There are several Hawaiian legends that tell the origin of the beach and mountain forms of naupaka, both of which produce these unusual half-flowers.
**The Legend of Naupaka**
In one version:
A princess was forbidden to marry her true love, a fisherman, because he was a commoner. As they parted ways forever, she tore a flower in half, giving one half to him and keeping the other half for herself. She then returned to the mountains where her family lived. Broken-hearted, they both cried and planted their halves of the flower. Each half grew and became the two forms of naupaka – the beach naupaka (naupaka kahakai) and the mountain naupaka (naupaka kuahiwi).
Another version:
It is said that two lovers, greatly devoted to each other, came to the attention of the Goddess Pele. Pele found the young man desirable and appeared before him as a beautiful stranger. But no matter what Pele did the lovers remained devoted to each other.
Angered, Pele chased the young man into the mountains, throwing molten lava at him. Pele's sisters witnessed this and to save the young man from a certain death they changed him into the mountain Naupaka. Pele immediately went after the young woman and chased her towards the sea - but again Pele's sisters stepped in and changed the young lover into beach Naupaka.
It is said that if the mountain Naupaka and beach Naupaka flowers are reunited, the two young lovers will be together again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment