Before I get into Mamaki I figured it would be useful to detail some information about the stinging nettle in case you, my lovely reader, were not familiar with it. Stinging nettle gets its name from the hollow stinging hairs on its stems, and the undersides of its leaves. In order to harvest the plant without being stung, grab the leaves by the top so it folds in half and rub the bottom together. This squishes the stinging hairs. You can also use gloves. As a child in the NW I was always fearful that I was going to get stung anyways and even after long rubbings of the leaves it normally took a dare to get me to eat it. If while you are out you do end up getting stung, normally some sward fern grows next to nettle plants and the seeds of the underside of the sward fern can be used to relieve the sting. After bushwhacker through a ton of it one day growing up I also caked on mud and that helped. I am not familiar with the exact medical uses of the stinging nettle other than "its good for you", but it is also used as food, as a tea, and as a fiber to make textiles.
Ok, now onto the star of this blog post. Mamaki! According to the "Hikers Guide to trail-side plants in Hawaii" (1) the mamaki is a "shrub or small tree up to 20 ft tall with coarse alternate broadly oval leaves that are ofter wide as they are long, come to a sharp point, and have small teeth along the edge. [...] The leaves are green above and often pale, almost white, with fine hairs, beneath. The veins often have a reddish tinge." This red vein in the leaves makes then very striking. You can see how it makes them stand out in the image above. "The Hawaiians used the fibrous inner bark of this plant to make one kind of kapa (fabric), and the mucilage from the bark was used to help glue layers of the kapa together. [...] A tea was made from the leaves and drunk as a tonic."
That tea is what I am after. I have had some since moving here and it is AWESOME! The nettle tea I always made at home I felt tasted like grass. This has more of an herbal tea taste. So I gathered some leaves while I was out the other day and they have dried and I think tomorrow I am going to make some tea.
I also bought a new Mamaki tree for my yard since the one we have is TALL and old and the nice looking leaves were hard to reach.
1. Hall, John B., 2004, A Hikers Guide to Trailside Plants in Hawaii, Mutual Publishing. http://hikersguidetoplants.com/
