Pulu

Pulu is a silky material obtained from the fibers of the hapuokinau pulu ("Cibotium glaucum"), a tree fern of Hawaii. It is made of the brown hairs that cover the young fiddlehead as it uncoils. For a period in the 1800s, pulu was collected, dried, and exported as pillow and mattress stuffing. A stone structure in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park known as the Old Pulu Factory was a site for drying and packing pulu. However, the discovery that pulu breaks down and crumbles into dust after only a few years led to the demise of the industry. In addition, pulu was often collected by cutting down the slow-growing hapuokinau, an extremely unsustainable method.Natives have used pulu as a wound dressing and for embalming.