Today’s drawing is of Mamaki (Pipturus albidus). It’s a native Hawaiian plant that is used in lāʻau lapaʻau (traditional medicine practices). It’s known to help with digestive problems, skin ailments, and respiratory conditions among other things. Plus, I learned a new-to-me fact about Mamaki while doing some reference searching on Google. It is also helpful in treating Dementia! (source) I know it’s popular as a brewed tea, so I went out and bought some for my mom. Our family member has dementia, and was coming over to visit today. Hopefully they can share some tea 🖤

This plant once existed in my yard, just like the Koa from yesterday’s post. I think it dried out completely one hot summer when I wasn’t watering enough. Sigh. It had really big, deep green leaves with purple veins. Due to my organic & lazy gardening practices, the leaves always had stuff on them so I rarely made tea.

This drawing came together pretty quickly. Which I’m grateful for, because I had a busy day!! I used my favorite waterproof hot pink ink to make this drawing. It’s called Noodler’s Ink Bulletproof Rachmaninoff. I always use a LAMY Safari fountain pen. I used my trusty watercolors to add the greens and yellows. And I relined it with hot pink watercolor to finish it up!

I hope you like it! Tomorrow’s post will be about today’s plant in Laulima Hawaii’s prompt list, the Pua Kala. I’ve never even heard of this flower before but I already love the look of it. Subscribe to my email list so you don’t miss my next post.