Preserving Knowledge, Restoring Limu Abundance Growing a Network of Limu Practitioners

Uncle Wally Ito is passionate about limu, or seaweed. He says limu has always been an integral part of Hawaiian culture, with uses in food, medicine, and religious ceremonies. In a traditional Hawaiian diet, limu was the third component of a nutritionally balanced diet along with fish and poi, providing an important source of minerals and vitamins. Limu, such as wawae‘iole (Codium edule), manauea (Gracilaria coronopifolia), ele‘ele (Ulva prolifera), kohu (Asparagopsis taxiformis), and līpoa (Dictyopteris plagiogramma), are still a common ingredient in many Hawaiian dishes, adding flavor and spice to poke and stews. “At one time there were countless diferent limu that were being consumed in Hawai‘i,” Uncle Wally says. “Today, we would be hard pressed to get a list of 20. So we’ve lost that knowledge of many kinds of limu.”