Ukiuki. Plate 20 from the book: Indigenous flowers of the Hawaiian Islands

Plate 20 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 Ukiuki.

Dianella ensifolia, Red.

The subject of the present plate is a member of the large and varied family of lilies. Its pretty berries, and graceful leaves marked with bright bits of colour, render the Uki (as the natives generally call it) a prize to the artist, and a favourite with all who take an interest in the beauties of nature. The flowers are small and do not attract notice. It is the berries, - which become a bluish purple when ripe, - that give the plant its chief attraction, contrasting charmingly with the yellow, unripe berries and the bright green leaves.

The uki grows on the high lands, the cool air of the mountains seeming a necessity of its existence. Yet it is not often found in the very damp sunless regions of the interior; its habitat being the slopes of mountains, where the ground is dry and rain not very frequent. It usually grows in isolated bunches, about three feet high, and, like the majority of Hawaiian plants, has feeble roots, and is easily destroyed.

The berry is a favourite food of the wild fowl; but the natives do not eat it, as they say it contains certain properties poisonous to the human system.

When the natives are upon mountain expeditions, they often use the uki for thatching their temporary huts, a purpose for which it is well adapted.