Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A leguminous tree, Sophora chrysophylla, growing at great elevations in the Hawaiian Islands, which has pinnate leaves, racemes of pale-yellow flowers, and fruit in the form of a four-winged pod deeply constricted between the seeds. The wood is hard and durable, and is suitable for posts in building. It was used by the ancient Hawaiians for making their oo, or digging implements, and the holua, or sleds. in which they coasted down the mountain sides.
Etymologies
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Examples
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The palila (Psittirostra bailleui), an endangered finch-like bird, specializes on mamane trees that occur in dry forest habitats.
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Nearly blinded by scuds of sand, we rode for hours through the volcanic wilderness; always the same rigid mamane, (Sophora Chrysophylla?) the same withered grass, and the same thornless thistles, through which the strong wind swept with a desolate screech.
The Hawaiian Archipelago Isabella Lucy 2004
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But Hualalai, though 10,000 feet in height, is covered with Pteris aquilina, mamane, coarse bunch grass, and pukeave to its very summit, which is crowned by a small, solitary, blossoming ohia.
The Hawaiian Archipelago Isabella Lucy 2004
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Close to us the main river had parted above and united below a small mamane tree with bracken under its shadow, and there are several oases of the same kind.
The Hawaiian Archipelago Isabella Lucy 2004
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Woody trailers, harsh hard grass in tufts, the Asplenium trichomanes in rifts, the Pellea ternifolia in sand, and some ohia and mamane scrub in hollow places sheltered from the wind, all hard, crisp, unlovely growths, contrast with the lavish greenery below.
The Hawaiian Archipelago Isabella Lucy 2004
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The actual forest, which is principally koa, ceases at a height of about 6000 feet, but a deplorable vegetation beginning with mamane scrub, and ending with withered wormwood and tufts of coarse grass, straggles up 3000 feet higher, and a scaly orange lichen is found in rare pitches at a height of 11,000 feet.
The Hawaiian Archipelago Isabella Lucy 2004
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Kumunuiaiake, whose spear of _mamane_ wood from Kawaihae can be thrown farther than one _ahupuaa_; and Puupuukaamai, whose spear of hard
The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Martha Warren Beckwith 1915
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Each brother in turn comes up to the king's house and thrusts his head in at the door, only to have it chopped off and the body burnt in a special kind of wood fire, _opiko_, _aaka_, _mamane_, _pua_ and _alani_.
The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Martha Warren Beckwith 1915
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A passion-stricken swain, or perhaps a woman, cries to _Malua_ to bring relief to his love-smart, to give drink to the parched _mamane_ buds -- emblems of human feeling.
Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula Nathaniel Bright Emerson 1877
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I notice that the foreigners never use the English or botanical names of trees or plants, but speak of ohias, ohelos, kukui (candle - nut), lauhala (pandanus), pulu (tree fern), mamane, koa, etc.
hernesheir commented on the word mamane
A leguminous Hawaiian tree in the genus Sophora.
November 19, 2010