Entada phaseoloides

Descrição:

St. Thomas bean FabaceaePossibly indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands (known only from one location on Kauai) Kauai (Cultivated)The tough stems are used for coarse cables and jump ropes. The lianas provide a potable, watery sap that is drunk in times of need. In Tonga, it is used for medicinal purposes and formerly the large seeds were used as a throwing piece in native games.Polynesian Names: Fue inu (Samoa); Kaka (Cooks); Sipi (Uvea); Tipi (Futuna); Valai? (Futuna); Wa lai (Fiji).The seeds are called Tifa or Tupe in Samoa; and Paanga, Sipi, or Valai in Tonga.EtymologyThe generic name Entada is derived from a Malabar name used by van Rheede for the genus of giant seeds that float across oceans. Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede (1636-1691) was a Dutch naturalist, governor of Cochin in Indi.The specific epithet is from the Latin phaseolus, that the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides (40-90 C.E.) used for a kind of bean, phaselus, phaseli. The suffix -oides means similar or resembling.nativeplants.hawaii.edu