Home / Browse / Cheirodendron / Olapalapa

iNaturalist — CC, credited & licensed per image

Araliaceae family

Olapalapa Cheirodendron trigynum

Native

Early-season nectar — Flowers in a late-winter / early-spring window when few other plants in our catalog bloom — valuable early forage for pollinators (relative to our catalog's bloom coverage).

Olapalapa is a perennial tree native to Hawaii. It grows to 27 ft and blooms Jan – Oct.

More about this plant

Cheirodendron trigynum, also known as ʻŌlapa or common cheirodendron, is a species of flowering plant in the ginseng family, Araliaceae, that is endemic to Hawaii. It is a medium-sized tree, reaching a height of 12–15 m (39–49 ft) and a trunk diameter of 0.6 m (2.0 ft). ʻŌlapa inhabits mixed mesic and wet forests at elevations of 310–2,190 m (1,020–7,190 ft) on all main islands, where it is an abundant understory tree. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY

Size & form

Sources · Size & form

TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage

USDA PLANTS — Lifespan

Height: 27 ft
Lifespan: Perennial
Foliage: Evergreen broadleaf

In the garden

Sub-canopy / understory layer — Sits in the understory of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →

derived roles

The garden year bloom → fruit → fall colour

Bloom

Bloom (the flower's colour)

Bloom · Jan – Oct — 72 obs · USA-NPN — Nature's Notebook (CC BY 4.0)

Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →

Wildlife & visitors 2 birds

Open records of who else uses Olapalapa — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 2 birds species (fruit, seed, browse):

Corvus hawaiiensis · Hawaiian Crow Melamprosops phaeosoma · Poo-Uli

Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).

How we know this (2) Methods & honest limits

Leaf build Direct fact

We read each species’ measured specific leaf area (leaf area per unit dry weight) from the Global Spectrum dataset and band it: thin & fast (high SLA), medium, or thick & tough (low SLA). The global median is about 10 mm²/mg.

Honest limits: A species-mean from pooled measurements — individual plants vary with light and site. A broad strategy signal, not a precise per-plant figure.

Díaz, S. et al. (2022) The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset. Scientific Data 9:755.

Photosynthesis Direct fact

A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.

Kattge, J. et al. TRY plant trait database — Categorical Traits Dataset (2012).

Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →

Sources for this entry (17) Open & cited

[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)

[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status

[06] Wetland indicator — USACE National Wetland Plant List (2022)

[07] Photos — iNaturalist — CC, credited per image

[08] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

[09] Ecological value — GloBI

[10] Bloom period — USA-NPN — Nature's Notebook (CC BY 4.0)

[11] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)

[12] Foliage — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[13] Height — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[14] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[15] Photosynthetic pathway — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[16] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)

[17] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county

Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.

Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

Citation

Loading…

BibTeX

Loading…

Enable JavaScript for a ready-to-copy citation with today’s access date, or cite this page’s URL with the date you viewed it.

Ecological value open data

2 / 5 Keystone

Keystone (host) value — caterpillar, specialist-bee & monarch hosting. A low number means “not a keystone host,” not “low value”: generalist flower-visitor value is shown separately below.

Caterpillar host 2

Deep dive

Caterpillar host · 2/5 — native butterfly & moth caterpillars that feed on this genus — the base of the food web (more caterpillars → more songbirds). Genus-level keystone count from Warren II 2026 (CC0; Tallamy host-use records), gap-filled by our GloBI derivation.

Counts are genus-level and banded 0–5. Full rubric →

Host / keystone value from open interaction data. How this is scored →

📍 In your area live

Native to the U.S.

Recorded in 1 state.

Open occurrence records place it in 4 counties across 1 states · GBIF (CC0/CC-BY)

Native — Hawaii

Recorded in 1 states/territories

Conservation

Conservation status G3 — Vulnerable

Invasive? No

Wetland indicator FAC

What do these ranks mean?

NatureServe ranks risk 1–5 (1 = rarest), globally (G) and per-state (S). A species can be secure worldwide yet at risk in your state. NatureServe →

Toxicity & pet safety

Check the ASPCA pet database →

Educational, not veterinary advice. If you suspect your pet ate this plant, contact a vet or pet poison-control line.

Functional traits TRY · Dryad

Seed mass medium

16 mg

small seed — straightforward to sow

Leaf nitrogen low

13.7 mg/g

leaf nitrogen — a rough guide to compost/mulch value

Leaf build medium

Medium

mid-range leaf build (measured leaf area per weight 9.7 mm²/mg)

Leaf size large

Large

large leaves (measured leaf area ~111 cm²) — a coarse, shade-casting texture

Deep dive — what these mean

Seed mass 16 mg — average weight of one seed. Bigger seeds are easier to hand-collect & direct-sow; dust-fine seeds need surface-sowing.

Leaf nitrogen 13.7 mg/g — measured leaf N. Higher = richer prunings for compost/mulch (a measured stand-in for "dynamic accumulator" claims).

Leaf build — how thick & tough the leaves are. Thin, lightweight leaves grow fast and crave light; thick, tough leaves last longer and shrug off shade, drought & grazing. (measured leaf area per dry weight, 9.7 mm²/mg)

Photosynthesis — the standard “C3” pathway most plants use, most active in cooler, moister, moderate-light conditions. (pathway C3)

Measured traits from TRY + Werner et al. (N-fix), Fan et al. (roots) & FungalRoot — general guidance, not species-specific prescriptions.

More modules coming

Olapalapa Cheirodendron trigynum

Growing & care

Wildlife & pollinators

Related plants