Primarily they come in red and yellow, but there are loads of different shades of those two colors. I've seen more than three different shades of red and more than three different shades of yellow along with several different shades of orange. It all depends on the particular tree.

The colors don't come true from seed, either, from what I've heard so even if you get seeds from a yellow ohia, it doesn't mean any trees grown from the seed will be yellow. From air layers, though, the colors will come true.

I've also heard that originally all ohias were white since they had a night time pollinator. Once the ohia got to Hawaii though, they had a daytime pollinator so the ohias with colors got more pollination and became the standard.

I have a bright red and bright yellow ohia in my front yard and there is an orange one in Honokaa I have my eye on to perhaps making an air layer on.

I have a large white lehua bush on my property. We will try to make keikis' by the end of the year.

Related species elsewhere also have primarily red flowers.

I have a thirty foot orange on the edge of my forest of red
and it is ready to be air layered. I seek advice.
Mahalo,

If it already has air roots, wrap the roots with moss, then wrap foil tightly over the moss and wait several months to a year. If there are no roots, nick the bark, rub rooting hormone in the wound and then wrap in moss and foil.

Does anyone know of a place that will send Ohia plants to the mainland? I had Ohia when I lived in Hawaii & loved them, I would love to have some here in Florida

David
pmbirds1@yahoo.com

There is a guy on ebay that has them and will send. Go to ebay.com and click on buy then type in ilima plant. When it comes up go to the question portion and ask how you can get the Ohia you want.

did anyone make keiki's from the white ohia? would love to get some

I would like to buy a clipping of the white too. does anyone have any available? stansato22@gmail.com

Are these beauties grown with any success in coastal Southern California? If so, would they qualify as trees, or shrubs?

There are many people who are looking for the "white" Ohia from Hawaii. There are many people who say they have seen the plant but review of these sightings show either no plant or another non-native plant. There are photos of the trees and flowers but they all show, so far as I know, either a non-native plant or new white growth. If what you have is really a "white" Hawaiian Ohia there are a great number of plant people that will celebrate and have to either confirm or reevaluate their opinions. If the plant exists, it should be shared with one of the arboritums so all could see it. If you search "white Ohia" at the bottom of this forum, you will see the comments from many on the subject.

The species sold in California is a New Zealand species,the Pohutukawa (M. excelsa). But please, please don't plant this tree in Hawai'i, we don't want to take the chance of it hybridizing with any of our 5 endemic native species or escaping into our forests. The genus metrosideros can be quite invasive.

In terms of other colors, I have seen combinations of yellow and orange and yellow and a very light off-yellow. Amy Greenwell Botanical Garden has a very beautiful specimen with yellow and orange flowers.

The metrosideros of NZ and Hawai'i do not cross pollinate well. Although the ohi'a demise is due to the NZ variety bringing in a fungal disease that affects our native ohi'a.
There is discussion of banning all myrtaceae (family that eucalyptus and ohi'a belong to) cut flowers into Hawai'i and not place any moratorium on plants related to ohi'a that are still being imported and brought in carelessly and planted among our native ohi'a.

M. excelsa is rated a "5 (evaluate further)" on the Weed Risk Assessment. Therefore, I agree that it probably should not be imported or spread around Hawaii for risk of bringing in more disease or hybridizing or displacing native species, but that is precautionary.

And I also believe any hybridization would be diluted out, being that Ohia is the most common tree in the state. Not only that but the increased genetic diversity could theoretically end up helping ohia if and when the next disease gets in at the expense of its genetic uniqueness- and hopefully not at the expense of the other plants and animals that depend on it, but if such apocolyptic ohia dieback occured, the fate of those plants and animals would not be looking so good anyway.