An Ethnobotanical Study of Some Edible Hawaiian Seaweeds

In late 1972 the authors were given a superb opportunity to interview Hawaiians from Kauai to Hawaii to learn their uses of edible seaweed (limu). We contacted persons who had been recommended to us by former Kamehameha Schools classmates and friends, and took with us specimens of 15 common seaweeds, some of which had Hawaiian limu names known to us and some which were unknown to us. Speaking in Hawaiian to the older informants, we sought three kinds of information: 1) the Hawaiian common names used for a particular kind of seaweed; 2) a discussion of these common names and their meaning, and 3) uses of these and other algae by Hawaiians. We were pleased to learn that "country folk" still use many seaweeds for food, and that the older Hawaiians retain a large amount of information and folklore about these plants.