Dianella sandwicensis blue dye
In its own language: ʻukiʻuki
A blue dye once made from the berries of the Hawaiian lily
No single value: Dianella sandwicensis blue dye is a material, and its colour varies. The background shows its family, blue.
Dianella sandwicensis, or ʻukiʻuki, is a plant native to Hawaii. Its berries were used by Hawaiians to make a blue dye for kapa, a traditional barkcloth. The plant is also known as the Hawaiian lily and is found on several Hawaiian islands.
- The berries were used to make blue dye for kapa cloth.
- Native to Hawaii and New Caledonia.
- Known locally as ʻukiʻuki, the Hawaiian lily.
- Leaves were used for thatching house walls.
What colour is Dianella sandwicensis blue dye?
The blue dye from Dianella sandwicensis comes from the berries of a plant native to Hawaii, known locally as ʻukiʻuki or the Hawaiian lily. The dye is blue and was used for colouring kapa, a type of barkcloth. The plant itself has blue to purple parts and orange anthers, but it is the berries that provide the dye.
Where does Dianella sandwicensis blue dye come from?
Dianella sandwicensis grows on several Hawaiian islands and in New Caledonia. The Hawaiian name ʻukiʻuki refers to the plant itself. The use of its berries to make blue dye has a history in Hawaiian culture, especially for colouring kapa, a traditional cloth made from bark.
How is Dianella sandwicensis blue dye made?
To make the dye, Hawaiians used the berries of Dianella sandwicensis. The process involved extracting the blue pigment from the berries and applying it to kapa, which is a cloth made from tree bark. The leaves of the plant were also used for thatching house walls.
Where Dianella sandwicensis blue dye is used
The blue dye from Dianella sandwicensis was mainly used for colouring kapa, a traditional Hawaiian barkcloth. This use was part of Hawaiian daily and cultural life. The plant's leaves were also used for practical purposes such as thatching.
Blue around the world
What the blue family means from country to country.
Lapis lazuli has been mined in the mountains of Badakhshan for more than six thousand years. Ground to powder it gave ultramarine, the costliest blue in European painting.
Royalty and powerSacred and holyAweSource: Lapis lazuliThe chadari is a full-length covering for women with a mesh panel over the eyes. In Kabul and the north it is most often a light blue.
Protection and healingSource: BurqaThe blue band of the flag stands for the wish of the Armenian people to live under peaceful skies. The red above it is for the highlands and the struggle to survive.
Politics and protestHopeSource: Flag of ArmeniaThe flag is sky blue, white and sky blue, created by Manuel Belgrano in 1812. National teams are called the Albiceleste, the white and sky blue.
Politics and protestPrideSource: Flag of ArgentinaBoca Juniors play in blue and gold. The club's story is that in 1907 it took the colours of the flag of the next ship into port, which was Swedish.
Festival and celebrationPrideSource: Boca JuniorsTo be true blue is to be honestly and loyally Australian. The phrase is older than the country, but Australians have made it their own.
Politics and protestTrustSource: True Blue (John Williamson song)Shades and relatives of Dianella sandwicensis blue dye
The dye is specifically blue, made from Dianella sandwicensis berries. The plant itself can be confused with Machaerina angustifolia when not in flower, but the dye is unique to Dianella sandwicensis in Hawaii.
Questions people ask about Dianella sandwicensis blue dye
What colour is the dye from Dianella sandwicensis?
The dye made from the berries of Dianella sandwicensis is blue and was used for colouring kapa, a traditional Hawaiian barkcloth.
Where does the name ʻukiʻuki come from?
ʻUkiʻuki is the Hawaiian name for Dianella sandwicensis, the plant whose berries are used to make the blue dye.
What was the blue dye used for?
Hawaiians used the blue dye from Dianella sandwicensis berries to colour kapa, which is a cloth made from tree bark.
Where is Dianella sandwicensis found?
It is native to Hawaii and New Caledonia, and is commonly found on Oahu, Maui, and Kauai.
Good reading and sources
- Dianella sandwicensis on WikipediaEncyclopedia
- More pictures on Wikimedia CommonsPictures
- Wikidata recordOpen data
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Dianella sandwicensis", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. The swatch is an approximation: named colours are not fixed standards, and every screen shows them a little differently. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-03.
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