Moloa`a :  Tangled-root

Alt:  Moloa`a ,   Tied-up-canoes;  Anchored-canoes

"Moloa`a had a good stream which watered many terraces along its three mile course toward the sea.  A half mile of relatively flat land inland from its bay was all terraced beautifully.  Near the shore the soil consists of sand mixed with humus, which makes it ideal for sweet potatoes.  There were still a few old breadfruit trees there in 1935.  Upstream, where there used to be a lo`i, all is now dry, owing to the stripping of timber from the land and to grazing cattle."  [Handy]

#In passing Molo-a’a, Keahi (a native of Kaua`i) pointed to some low hills mauka and makai of the highway and said, "When I was a small girl, I used to come here with my tutu-wahine for wauke.  These hills, now barren, were once so thickly overgrown that the a’a (roots) of the wauke were molo (matted) together, weaving into each other like the meshes of a mat . . . This was once a great wauke growing place . . . Molo-a’a, Matted-roots" (Mary P. Pukui, as quoted in Handy, p. 422)

#Moloa`a is famed for the quality of its limu kohu (edible seaweed).  There were three types distinguished on this reef: limu kohu (Supreme-seaweed, Asparagopsis taxiformus, which is red in color), kohu lïpehe (light-colored-kohu), and kohu koko (dark-red-kohu).

*The limu kohu was brought here from South Kohala on the island of Hawai`i by a chief of that place.  The limu was placed under kapu and strictly reserved for the use of the ali`i nui.  [Aly Christian]