Puakenikeni, Fagraea berteroana Puakenikeni can be a shrub or a large, flowering tree with robust limbs and fragrant blossoms. It is indigenous from New Guinea and northern Australia, but widely distributed throughout the South Pacific. Puakenikeni got its name from its use in lei making. The fragrant flowers hold up well over time and continue to imbue the wearer with its divine aroma. Valued for its ideal composition, it became known as the ten-cent flower ( pua means flower and kenikeni means dime, ten cents). Puakenikeni is a sacred tree in many cultures. In Tahitian legend, the first pua tree was brought from the tenth heaven by Tane, god of the forests. In Mangaian, the pua tree was the tree that guarded the entrance to the land of the spirits in the underworld. At Kauai Farmacy, we revere our Puakenikeni tree with gratitude and awe, for she bestows us with a carpet of fragrant flowers each day, dropping her blessings for us to wear, share and add to the ambiance of our Tea Lanai.
