ʻē.kaha.kaha
1. n. Juvenile or small form of bird's-nest fern. Cf. ʻēkaha.
2. Var. name for limu loloa and limu uaua loli.
E-KA-HA-KA-HA
s. Name of a species of sea-weed.
2. Name of a plant, large, long leaf.
Ekahakaha (ĕ-kă'-hă-kă'-hă), n.
/ ĕ-kă'-hă-kă'-hă /1. A species of plant, the birdnest fern (Asplenium nidus). A very large genus of ferns having linear or oblong indusia attached by one margin; the spleenworts.
2. A species of algae (Gelidium filicinum). Same as ekaha.
ēkahakaha
Two plants, one a green-colored seaweed (Pterocladia caerulesceus); the other, a land plant, the birdʻs nest fern (Asplenium nidis). Both are very similar except in size. Each has a segment of five “leaves” attached to a stem, each having the shape of long oblong fronds. The seaweed is tiny in contrast to the fern. But both wave their fronds similarly in their respective environments of seawater currents or free air movements. It can be said that the keen-eyed natives saw in the birdʻs nest fern frond the same shape and waving actions they had always seen in the seaweed ʻēkaha; hence, the name. And hence perhaps, the first pairing of a sea plant and a land plant as described in the Hawaiian Hymn of Creation in the Kumulipo. (KL.)
E huli iā “ʻēkahakaha” ma Ulukau.
Search for “ʻēkahakaha” on Ulukau.