25. Kukui Nut Lei

A symbol of shapeshifting power

In the Greek myths, a person transforming into a plant is generally being punished or sacrificed. Narcissus falls in love with his reflection in a pool of water and mutates into a flower; Daphne, fleeing Apollo, becomes a laurel tree, her face, her self, lost in the canopy of leaves.

The Hawaiʻian story of Kamapuaʻa is altogether different. Kamapuaʻa is a demigod and a shapeshifter: half-man, half-pig, sometimes a triggerfish, sometimes the mist over the sea. He’s a volatile figure of raw and unapologetic lust, hunger, and territorial rage. But in the Hawaiʻian mythology, his excess vitality is not a flaw. His immense appetites are divine forces, not sins. He famously comes into conflict with Pele, the goddess of volcanoes, whose fiery domain opposes his rain-bringing nature. In their ongoing battles between fire and water, he breaks apart her lava rock, turning it into lush soil. Their love affair is war; their war is creation.

His shapeshifting also includes plant forms, and in some stories Kamapuaʻa becomes a kukui tree, bearing the nuts whose oil was traditionally burned by Hawaiʻians for light. As a kukui, his power and vitality are redirected, offering steady illumination and an enduring presence in the landscape. Western myths frame such transformation as suppression or crushed desire; but Hawaiʻian stories favor this kind of sustaining, moderated power.

The familiar, pungent leis made from flowers celebrate the ephemeral, but bruise within a day. Hawaiʻian leis made of kukui nuts honor the opposite state: steadiness, maturity, self-mastery.

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Special thanks to Tom Knudson for suggesting the kukui nut lei.

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Links:

• Kamapuaʻa - Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, NPS

• “Legend of the Kamapuaʻa Family,” by Martha Warren Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology, University of Hawaii Press 1982, pp. 202-207.

• Hawaiʻian Dictionary (Pukui & Elbert) – entry for “Kukui”

• “Expanding Tree Diversity in Hawai‘i’s Landscapes: Kukui, Aleurites moluccana,” by Richard A. Criley, Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

• Kukui Tree - Wikipedia

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This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 words on 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary. Through December 31, 2026.

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