Puapilo. Plate 42 from the book: Indigenous flowers of the Hawaiian Islands

Plate 42 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 Puapilo.

Copparis sandwichiana, D. C.

This is one of the most beautiful, and characteristic of Hawaiian flowers. But one of the most difficult to represent, owing to its fragile nature, and also on account of it being night-blooming. The blossoms open at sunset and wither soon after sunrise. Under these circumstances, it is no easy task to accomplish a painting of the Puapilo. The only way of doing so is to begin work at the earliest break of drawn, and even then the greatest expedition is necessary, as in an hour or so, the flowers not only fade, but lose their delicate creamy white, and become of a dull pink colour.

The plant has no stated time of blooming. Flowers can be found at almost any season of the year, but in greatest profusion soon after the autumn rains. The plant is found on the lowlands upon broken rocky ground, its branches spreading over and around the stones, and it may frequently be seen growing on the face of perpendicular cliffs, with seemingly no soil whatever to nourish its roots. Perhaps this peculiarity of growing on inaccessible places has saved it from the ravages of animals, which have destroyed so many indigenous plants.