lehua

[prettygoodword]

Back in the saddle with another theme week of words learned from playing solo mode Words With Friends, or WTFWWF 9 -- this time, it's a handful of plants:


lehua (ley-HOO-ah) - n., a hardwood tree (Metrosideros villosa) of the Hawaiian and other Polynesian islands with showy bright-red flowers.


Also called ohia lehua and just ohia. Contrary to what some dictionaries report, ʻōhiʻa lehua (to give the formal Hawaiian spelling) and its two component names can refer to both the tree and the flower, rather than ohia just the tree and lahua just the flower. The name, not surprisingly, is from the Hawaiian name, but I'm not quickly finding a basic meaning for the words.


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

oooh, lovely.

[prettygoodword]

It is!