Kī (Cordyline fruticosa)

Photo courtesy of MNBG

Hawaiian name: Kī / Lāʻī (ti leaf)
Botanical name: Cordyline fruticosa
Family: Asparagaceae
Status: Polynesian-introduced
Where naturalized in the wild: All main Hawaiian islands except Kahoʻolawe HI exc. Ka
Water/Light: Moist to wet, with full to partial sunlight
Elevation range: 15 to 1,800 feet
Height: 6 to 11 feet

Kī, also called lāʻī, or ti leaf, was brought to Hawai‘i in the voyaging canoes of the first Polynesian settlers. It was used for many different applications, from ceremony and medicine to cooking and craft. As just a few examples, the leaves were made into footwear, skirts, rain capes, food wrappings, as thatch, and even to construct a musical instrument. The sweet roots were baked and eaten, and in the 18th and 19th centuries it was distilled (with other plants) into an alcoholic beverage called ‘okolehao which was used for curing scurvy. In lāʻau lapaʻau (Hawaiian medicine), leaf buds and flowers kī were also used as ingredients in treatments of nasal growths, shortness of breath, fevers, eyewash and to purge phlegm in the chest. Leaves were used as a healing apparatus as well, for example to wrap heated stones as a hot pack or as poultices.  Only the green variety of kī was brought to Hawai'i by the first Polynesian settlers; the red and purple varieties were introduced much later. There was also likely a small leafed variety, of which there was an ʻōlelo noʻeau that served as an insult: Lau‘i pekepeke (small-leaved ti plant), meaning of not much use since long leaves were preferred for wrapping food. Mahalo to the Bishop Museum Ethnobotany Database, which provided most of this content.