Slow-growing ground cover
worth the wait

Description: A slow-growing prostrate ground cover no more than 6 inches tall with succulent, glossy, dark-green leaves and typical naupaka half-flowers. Once pollinated, these flowers turn into small black fruit about a quarter- to a half-inch across, containing a single seed. This attractive plant closely resembles a jade plant.

HUI KU MAOLI OLA The naupaka papa closely resembles a jade plant, but the flowers turn into small black fruit once they are pollinated.

Distribution: This endangered plant was formerly found on sand dunes and rocky coastlines of all the main islands, except Kahoolawe, but is now restricted to small a population on Maui and off-shore islets of both Maui and Molokai.

Cultural uses: None are known, most likely because this plant was always rare.

Landscape uses and care: Naupaka papa looks awesome as either an accent plant around rocks or, if enough are planted, as a ground cover. It is a slow grower, so you may want to place plants closer together than you would with other ground covers. But once it reaches the desired size, you won't have to prune it very often. Few pests mess with it -- probably because its leaves are thick and waxy. It requires little water once established. Full sun is best for the plant's health, making it flower profusely and look more full. Naupaka papa can be grown from seeds found within the fruit or from cuttings, but success rates are low. On average only about 50 percent take root, while we can get close to 100 percent with the common beach naupaka.

Also: It is believed that all nine species of naupaka (two coastal and seven mountain) came from three separate colonizations: one for the common beach naupaka, which is indigenous; another for 'ohe naupaka (S. glabra), a spectacular mountain species with large tubular yellow flowers not typical of naupaka; and finally a third colonization covering all the rest of the species, including six mountain species and this coastal one.

It is hard to trace this plant's lineage, as it has characteristics of both the common beach species -- such as habitat -- but the small black fruit resemble those of the mountain species.