'Ie'ie

’Ie’ie is a climbing woody vine with long, tough, flexible leaves and very large, spectacular flower heads. To see those flowers, you might have to look quite a way up a tree. The scientific name, Freycinetia arborea, gives the clue to its climbing ability. Arborea means relating to trees. Using its aerial roots, ‘ie’ie will readily go up a tree, but this vine can also scramble over rocks and around the forest floor.

’Ie’ie is widespread on the high islands of Polynesia. In the Cook Islands, it is called kiekie. In Tahiti, ‘ie’ie is called ieie, and from legends there it is considered the queen plant of warriors. In Hawai’i, this indigenous plant has a particular distinction. It is one of only five plants allowed to adorn the hula altar. The other four are ‘ilima, maile, lehua and hala pepe.

With regard to those spectacular flower heads, their color is salmon-orange or pinkish if female, and buff if male, with orangish outer leaves called bracts. And herein lies a difficulty. With separate sexes on separate plants, one needs a marriage maker to keep the generations going. In times past, this was done by our native bat and birds. ‘O’u and ‘alala were important pollinators and seed dispersers for ‘ie’ie. But then, unfortunately, they began to disappear from our forests. But all is not lost. Almost a hundred years ago, the Japanese white-eye was introduced to the islands and took over this function. The white-eye is also doing a great job dispersing the seeds of the endemic clermontia plants in my forest. Respect!