Common name: Pua kenikeni
Other common names: Australian gardenia, Perfume flower, Pua kenikeni, Ten cent flowers
Description
Pua kenikeni is a fragrant shrub or small tree native to the Pacific Islands, Australia and Papua New Guinea grows 3 to 5 meters tall in shrub form, occasionally forming a tree up to 15 meters.
It usually develop a low-branching habit and sprawling crown. Trumpet-shaped, fragrant flowers bloom mainly in spring and autumn, but also intermittently, especially in high rainfall regions, changing colour from white to yellow as they age. These are followed in by small egg-shaped fruit which are orange when mature and numerous tiny seed.
Use
Appreciated for its fragrant flowers, Pua Tree is widely planted as an ornamental shrub in its native region. In Hawaii, the flowers are strung into Leis or soaked in coconut oil to make a fragrant hair or body oil. The wood is valued for making tool handles and other small wooden articles.
Climate
Grows naturally in humid tropical and sub-tropical climates with air temperatures of 15 to 32 C and annual rainfall between 1500 and 6000 mm. Reports on the tree's ability to tolerate waterlogging are conflicting. Grows best in free-draining clay, loam or sand soils with a pH in the range 5.5 to 6.5.
Growing
Propagate from greenwood cuttings, by circumposing (air-layering) or from seed. Seedling plants are much slower growing.
Problem features
An assessment of weed risk undertaken by the Hawaii Pacific Weed Risk Assessment (HPWRA) project gives Pua Tree a low weed risk rating.