Kaunaʻoa has tiny star-like yellowish white perfect (bisexual) flowers (photograph courtesy of Eric Knight CC BY 4.0). This parasitic plant penetrates and absorbs nutrients from other plants using its tiny claw-like haustoria pictured here (photograph courtesy of G.K. Linney via G.D. Carr ©). While its most commonly seen host is pōhuehue (Ipomoea pes-caprae subsp. brasiliensis) (photograph courtesy of Forest & Kim Starr CC BY 3.0 US), kaunaʻoa will parasitize many other species of alien and native plants in Hawai‘i (photograph of kaunaʻoa on unidentified roadside plant and cultivated native hibiscus courtesy of Scot Nelson Public Domain; photograph of kaunaʻoa on hinahina kū kahakai (Heliotropium anomalum) courtesy of Forest & Kim Starr CC BY 2.0).

Growth Requirements

General

Container

Trellis or Fence Climber

Additional Landscape Use Information 

Kaunaʻoa kahakai is not be suitable for the average commercial landscape.

They may have use in a native Hawaiian garden or grown for lei. Plants can be grown in a container with a host plant. The bright yellow to yellow-orange colored stems certainly command attention.

NOTE: Please keep in mind that kaunaʻoa kahakai is a parasitic plant and can greatly harm or kill their host plants. Do not plant near your valuable plants.

Kaunaʻoa kahakai are provided sustenance from their host plants by means of haustoria, specialized roots for extracting the nutrients. It would appear, then, that additional fertilizers would not be required. Use fertilizer on host plant.

Pruning Information 

Trim or break off unwanted growth. [10]

Keep moist until plant establishes itself onto its host. Thereafter, watering is rarely needed.

Soil must be well drained 

Light Conditions 

Full sun

Tolerances 

Drought

Wind

Salt Spray

Heat

Soils 

Sand

Cinder

Coral

Limitations 

Kaunaʻoa do not have true roots and so require a host plant(s) to survive. Stems can be placed over a host plant and will parisitize the plant. They do not appear to be choosey about their hosts, but prefer shrubs and trees with bushy growth such as noni. [10]

Pests and Diseases

Ants.

Can transmit viruses to host plant. [10]

 Refer to the Pests & Diseases page for ways to battle the above-mentioned pests. 

Special Features and Information

General

Cuscuta (Dodder) is a genus of about 100-170 species of yellow, orange or red (rarely green) parasitic plants. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutaceae, recent genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has shown that it is correctly placed in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. The genus is found throughout the temperate to tropical regions of the world, with the greatest species diversity in subtropical and tropical regions. [5]

Cuscuta sandwichiana is the only native member in the genus that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands.

There is also a smaller, paler non-native species, the Western field dodder (Cuscuta campestris), that is sparingly naturalized on Oʻahu, West Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island. It is less common than Cuscuta sandwichiana.

These parasitic plants are not pickey about their hosts and have been recorded on a number of introduced and native plants.

The Territorial Legislature in 1923 designated lei kaunaʻoa to represent the island of Lānaʻi but is now rare on this island. [7]

Some have considered this endemic species to be "declared noxious" as a weed. [6]

Because of its parasitic nature kaunaʻoa kahakai is often called "the motherless plant." [3]

Hawaiian Name

The Hawaiian name Kaunaʻoa kahakai means "kaunaʻoa by the seashore." An appropriate name since they can be seen growing in beach sands parisitizing other plants, such as the indigenous grass ʻakiʻaki (Sporobolus virginicus), pāʻūohiʻiaka, ʻilima, pōhuehue and, pardon the pun, a "host" of others.

Etymology

The generic name Cuscuta is derived from the Arabic kuskut, meaning a tangled twist of hair, in reference to the habit of this plant.

The specific epithet sandwichiana refers to the "Sandwich Islands," as the Hawaiian Islands were once called, and named by James Cook on one of his voyages in the 1770s. James Cook named the islands after John Montagu (The fourth Earl of Sandwich) for supporting Cook's voyages.