236 
THE OLONA, HAWAII’S UNEXCELLED 
FIBER-PLANT 
Tur Hawaiian people formerly made use of 
a considerable range of fiber plants. Some of 
these. were brought by the natives from the 
South Pacific, others were discovered in the 
new island home. The paper mulberry, 
Broussonettia papyrifera, is an excellent ex- 
ample of a fiber-plant widespread in the Pacific 
region. From its copious bast was made the 
typical kapa or bark-cloth of Polynesia. The 
olona (o-lo-na) Touchardia latifolia Gaud., on 
the other hand, is wholly confined to the 
Hawaiian Islands; the genus is monotypic and 
endemic. The ancient Hawaiians undoubtedly 
discovered the valuable fiber of this plant at 
a very early time. They were intimately 
familiar with the local flora and its economic 
utilization. The olona is mentioned in many 
of the old songs and legends. 
Special interest is attached to the olona fiber 
as it is generally recognized to be the strongest 
and most durable fiber in the world. No other 
fiber is recorded to exceed it in these two im- 
portant characteristics. So far as is known to 
the writer, the present paper is the first and 
only extant concise and comprehensive account 
of the olona. 
The urticaceous genus Touchardia was 
named and described by Charles Gaudichaud- 
Beaupre, generally known as Gaudichaud. He 
was botanist for the great French expedition 
under Freycinet, 1817-1820, and for “La Bo- 
nite ” during its cireumnayigation of the globe, 
1836-37. The botany of the latter voyage, in 
which Touchardia is described, was published 
under the title “ Botanique du Voyage autour 
du Monde ...surla Bonite.” The salient fea- 
tures of the genus are as follows: Flowers 
dicecious, on globose receptacles. Male peri- 
gone 5-parted, the segments imbricate in the 
depressed bud. Stamens 5. Female perigone 
subcampanulate, 4-lobed or toothed. Ovary 
straight, almost as long as the perigone. Ovule 
oblique, ascending. Stigma spathulate, with 
one face and the margins papillose-ciliate. 
Achene smooth, compressed, oval, invested by 
the rather fleshy adherent perigone. Albumen 
very scanty. Cotyledons ovate, subcordate, 
SCIENCE 
[N, S. Von. XLVIIT. No. 1236 
conduplicate, and twice as long as the thick 
radicle. 
The single species latifolia was named with 
reference to the large, broad leaves, which form 
a conspicuous feature of the plant. It is an 
erect woody shrub, 4-10 ft. high, and sparingly 
dividing into stout branches. It is from the 
thick bark of these wand-like erect shoots that 
the highly prized fiber is obtained. The young- 
est shoots are hispid, but soon glabrate; the 
colorless latex is viscid and not plentiful. 
The leaves are alternate, large, and with 
petioles of 8-10 inches. The upper leaves have 
short petioles, the lower leaves have greatly 
elongated petioles. The leaf-blade is 9-16 in- 
ches long by 5-10 inches broad, ovate, with 
acute or acuminate apex and rounded base. 
The margin is obtusely crenate. The blade is 
chartaceous, dark-green on both faces, and 
glabrous, excepting a few small hairs along 
the veins. Unlike many urticaceous plants, 
the leaves are not armed with stinging hairs. 
The veins are conspicuously tripli-venate at 
the base of the leaf, the lateral veins not reach- 
ing the middle of the margin; toward the 
apex it is pinnate, with rectangular areoles. 
The stipules are large, 2 inches long, axillary, 
entire and acute. They form one of the easily 
recognized characters of the plant. The mid- 
ribs, petioleg, stipules, etc., are often dark red. 
The flowers are pedicellate and bracteolate. 
The globose glomerules are generally arranged 
in repeatedly forking cymes, with one branch 
suppressed and the middle glomerule sessile. 
The male cymes are longer (3-5 in.) and 
broader (5-6 in.) than the female cymes, which 
are also more crowded. The male glomerules 
are 6-8 lines in diameter, with a perigone of 
13-2 lines, the lanceolate seements hooded and 
obtuse or tuberculate below the apex. The 
stamens are shortly exerted; anthers large, 
white. The rudiment of the pistil is glabrous. 
The female glomerules are 4-5 lines in di- 
ameter; perigone 1 line diameter, orange- 
colored upon maturity; style as long as the 
achene. Like many of the plants of the rain- 
forest the olona is quite variable as to its 
flowering period; flowering plants may be ob- 
tained at any season of the year. 
