Nukuiwi. Plate 5 from the book: Indigenous flowers of the Hawaiian Islands

Plate 5 of 44 from Isabella Sinclair's Indigenous flowers of the Hawaiian Islands (1885). The coloured illustration is accompanied by the following text describing the plant:

The Nukuiwi.

Strongylodon lucidum, Seem.

This is one of the most beautiful of Hawaiian flowers, both in form and colour. The plant is a strong climber, the lower part of the vine being four to six inches in circumference, and so strong that in the old days (when Hawaiians had many games which have now gone out of fashion) it was used for lele-koali, "a swing." When it grows in the woods it does not usually blossom until reaching a considereable height, and its graceful clusters of flowers are generally seen hanging from trees, - upon which the vine has grown, - twenty to thirty feet from the ground.

The flowers are of that peculiarly delicate half-transparent nature, which artists in vain endeavour to represent.

The Nukuiwi grows mostly in warm valleys, from a few hundred to two thousand feet above the sea.