`APE

Sometimes called "Elephant's Ear",`ape (pronounced ah-pay), is related to and resembles a large taro plant. In contrast to taro, whose leaves point earth-ward, the larger heart-shaped leaves of `ape tend to point upward, adding to its height. The shiny green leaves can grow up to 2-4 feet long by 2 feet wide. Some varieties have patches of white. `Ape's leaf stems may be green or a whitish color and reach up to 4 1/2 feet long. The trunk of this plant is ringed and is often 3-4 inches thick in diameter, rising as high as 4-8 feet. It is used in modern times as a landscaping plant due to its tropical appearance and ability to provide shade in a garden.`Ape thrives in a slightly moist and shady location with well composted soil.

`Ai no i ka `ape he nane`o no ka nuku. He who eats `ape is bound to have his mouth itch. He who indulges in some thing harmful will surely reap the result!

Similar to taro, the underground stem and corm is edible, and as with taro, is only safe to eat after lengthy cooking which breaks down the irritant of the uncooked crystals of calcium oxalate, which can injure internal human tissue. Not a favored food, `ape was eaten only in times of famine when other foods were scarce.

Originating in southern Asia, `ape (Alocasia macrorrhiza, Xanthosoma robustum) grows throughout the Pacific and was brought by Polynesian voyagers as roots in their canoes to Hawai`i over 1500 years ago. The plant figures in Hawaiian legends as well as in those of Rarotonga. `Ape was used as an ingredient in a dye used to color ipu/gourds.

Medicinally, the juice from freshly cut stems can be an antidote on the skin to itchy stinging plants such as ko/sugar cane and nettle. In the old days, the leaves of `ape and of ti were used to wrap a fevered person for comfort, and because it was said the bitter sap of `ape would frighten away negative spirits.

 

`AWA

The sparingly branched, erect shrub is very hardy and grows up to 12 feet high. It has large, smooth, heart-shaped leaves and green or black jointed stems, with swellings at the joint. The black `awa is the rare one. The flower is an inconspicuous narrow yellow-green spike. The root is thick, soft wooded when fresh, hardening as it dries. It needs to grow for 2 to 3 years minimum to achieve usable potency. It is valued as an intoxicating drink and as a medicine. `Awa is also a sedative, used as a sacred plant for prayer, as well as appreciated for pleasure, especially in the south Pacific islands. It assists in opening communication channels with others and with the elements.

As a medicine, the roots - as well as the leaves, stems and bark - are used for the following: general debility, weary muscles, chills, colds, headaches, lung and other respiratory diseases such as asthma, displacement of the womb, diabetes, congestion of the urinary tract as well as for rheumatism.

To make feverish or restless young children go to sleep, the leaf buds are given to the child after being chewed by the mother. The plant is also used during teething and in rituals at the time of weaning.

`Awa is used principally as a sedative to induce relaxation and sleep, especially when combined with lomi lomi massage. It is also used as a tonic when people feel weak, as it is stimulating and refreshing, unless drunk in large quantities. Over indulgence in `awa use for a period of time can adversely (but temporarily) affect the skin and eyes. The word `awa means bitter.

In the old days, it is said that the chiefs and priests were the principal users of `awa, but in more recent times it has been taken to use by all the people. Those who perform strenuous work especially appreciate its properties as a relief for stiffness, tenseness and fatigue in the muscles. `Awa is a muscle relaxant to weary farmers, fishermen, hunters and paddlers. Spiritual leaders use `awa ceremonially at appointed times, such as at a ritual following a canoe race-meet. It is a social tradition and an offering of gratitude to the divine, both before and after events and festivals in the life of the people.

In a story about the daughters of Haumea, the eldest being Pele, and her family's travels from Tahiti to Hawai`i Nei, throughout the islands, ending in Hawai`i Island where she resides now, there is a chant given, which was chanted upon making an offering of pig and `awa to Laka, the goddess of hula, to receive instruction. The last lines of the translation are:

...Low
accessible is the day whereby knowledge is gained,
Knowledge from the source, knowledge by hearing,
Like the flourishing `awa plant is the knowledge of the gods,
O hear me.

While living in Western Samoa, I learned that the chiefs and talking chiefs use `awa ceremonially. These villagers on the island of Savaii met together periodically to decide the issues of the village. The meetings were preceded by an `awa ceremony, bringing the leaders into one accord and goodwill, as they sat in a decision making circle around the fale.

To prepare the 'awa root, it is sometimes used fresh, sometimes sun-dried. It is washed clean, chopped into small pieces, and then pounded — or in modern times, blended in a blender — with water to create a suspension of kavalactones, which are lipid-soluble. Traditionally, the root pieces were chewed, usually by a young maiden. Now powdered and packaged root is often available.

An `awa drink, good for migraines or P.M.S. can be prepared for one's personal use in the following way. Put a few small pieces of the clean root in the mouth and chew them. Add a few more, until a cud the size of the thumb is formed. When three of these are ready, put them in a bowl and mash with about a cup of fresh water. Strain the liquid through a cloth to remove woody material. This will provide you with a drink that can be used for headaches or cramps. Sugar cane juice or honey can be added to sweeten. Sometimes a spoonful of noni juice is added as a chaser, to counter any unpleasant effects.

In the traditional manner, the chewed `awa is mixed with water or with coconut water, sometimes warmed by putting it in a kanoa, calabash, with hot stones. It is then stirred and strained with a fibrous plant bundle and drunk when it is cool.

Special cups (`apu `awa), made from coconut shell cut lengthwise are often reserved for this brew, and for the ceremony of `awa drinking. Distinctive bowls are also made and set aside for `awa ceremonies throughout Polynesia. `Awa/kava seems to be more widely used outside these Hawai`i islands.

When `awa cups are filled, a prayer of gratitude is offered. `Awa is usually gulped rather than sipped, with some of the liquid being left in the container and poured upon the earth, with thanksgiving. A chaser or pupu is sometimes used to offset the bitter taste: a piece of sugar cane, a bite of sweet potato, banana or fish. A numbness in the mouth may be noticed after `awa ingestion.

It is best to harvest the `awa root when the ground is moist from rain, so that it can be easily removed. For propagation, the stalk can be cut into sections that include the top of one knob and the bottom of the next one down. These can be planted right side up, with most of the cane being beneath the moist earth, in a shady place. Another method of planting is to lay a long piece of stem within the earth, allowing several plants to sprout from the knobby sections laid down.

`AWAPUHI KUAHIWI

What a glorious exotic family are the tropical `awapuhi! All the members of the `awapuhi `ohana are known for their pungent pleasant aroma and/or their beauty.

Summertime brings us the blooms and sweet fragrance of the white ginger, `awapuhi ke`oke`o, and the yellow ginger, `awapuhi melemele. Throughout the seasons of the year we can appreciate the kahili ginger, crepe ginger, the red ginger called `awapuhi `ula`ula, and the edible root ginger, `awapuhi`ai, also called `awapuhi pake, or commercial Chinese or Jamaican ginger.

Lastly, in summertime, are to be found abundant stands of `awapuhi kuahiwi, native wild shampoo ginger, sometimes called opuhi, with the botanical name of Zingiber zerumbet.

This plant originated in India, was distributed eastward through Polynesia and introduced to these islands in the canoes of early settlers. The leaves and leaf stalks, which are also fragrant, were used in baking in the imu, underground oven, to enhance the flavor of pork and fish as they cooked. Traditionally, the aromatic underground roots/rhizomes were sliced, dried and pounded to a powder, then added to the folds of stored kapa/tapa cloth. The spicy-smelling fresh roots were pounded and used as medicine for indigestion and other ailments. The roots can be stored in a cool, dark place to keep for use when needed. In traditional use, the root was ground in a stone mortar with a stone pestle, was mixed with a ripe noni fruit and then used to treat severe sprains. The pulp was placed in a cloth and loosely bound around the injured area. The dressing was changed daily until the sprain healed. The warmth of the afternoon sun could also be beneficial to the injured part.

For a toothache or a cavity, the cooked and softened `wapuhi root was pressed into the hollow and left for as long as was needed.

To ease a stomachache, the ground and strained root material is mixed with water and drunk. Similarly, `awapuhi pake (Zingiber officinale) is widely cultivated and eaten, or made into a tea for indigestion as well as increased circulation of the blood and an increased sense of well-being.

The `awapuhi is said to be one of the kinolau, multiple forms, of the Hawaii deity Kane.

Finally, perhaps the most common use of `awapuhi kuahiwi is as a shampoo and conditioner for the hair. The clear slimy and sudsy juice present in the mature flower heads is excellent for softening and brings shine to the hair. It can be left in the hair or rinsed out, as you wish. Often we pick or cut the flowerheads of this plant in the forest, as we approach a pool or waterfall for a refreshing summer bath, leave the flowers atop a nearby rock, and then squeeze the sweet juices into our hair and over our bodies when our swim is completed. The sudsy juice is excellent for massage, too, either by the pool or at home.

This plant can easily be cultivated in home gardens. A patch in my Hana garden kept me supplied with hair conditioner and body lotion during the summers. If you are considering growing it in your garden, be sure to allow a large area. The `awapuhi tend to form thick stands, following their large underground stems horizontally, just under the earth's surface. `Awapuhi kuahiwi is best propagated in autumn by planting a piece of rootstock with buds, in a shallow trench of broken and composted soil.

`Awapuhi kuahiwi is a perennial, so from autumn until spring it becomes dormant above ground as the leaf stalks die away. In the spring the plant springs up anew. The 10-12 blade-shaped leaves grow to 6-8 inches on the approximately 3 foot long stalks. The leaves grow in an alternate arrangement on the upright, thin, fleshy stalk. Among the leaf stalks, the conical or club-shaped flower heads burst forth upon their separate and shorter stalks. These appear in the summer, after the leaf stalks have been growing for awhile.

As the 2-3 inch long bracts/flower heads mature, they gradually fill with an aromatic, slimy liquid. The heads are reddish-green with overlapping scales, producing small yellowish-white flowers that poke out a few at a time. These tiny flowers are similar in fragrance to the larger and more delicate butterfly-like yellow and white ginger blossoms, growing from the base toward the head. The flower stalks usually remain beneath the leaf stalks, enjoying the moist shade and warmth provided. This plant grows abundantly in areas where `ulu, kukui and `ohi`a `ai all thrive, often near or upon abandoned kalo terraces. `Awapuhi kuahiwi grows wild in patches at low altitudes in the open damp forest. The juice can be used to quench thirst when out walking in the forest, and makes a lovely lunch when combined with a few mountain apples.

HAU

In the old days this plant was so highly valued that permission to cut it was required of the village chief. Today it is often called "hau bush" and is termed an invasive plant, as it has taken over some areas where acres are covered high with hau, at the same time creating windbreaks and stabilizing the soil.

Seeds and cuttings of hau were brought by early Polynesian voyagers to Hawai`i Nei, and planted by the settlers to yield a light-weight tough white wood with a brown heart. Hau is found and used throughout tropical and subtropical Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia and is held in high regard for its usefulness to the traditional life of oceanic people.

Hibiscus tiliaceus is the scientific name of hau. The naturally curved branches of this plant's softwood are used to make canoe outriggers. The three parts are the niako, the two booms, and the float, ama. To get the proper shapes, the younger branches were sometimes trained into arches or shaped in an imu, underground oven. The bark was stripped from the branches which were then soaked for a few weeks in ocean water. This treatment would discourage insects and rot. Wiliwili or `ohi`a lehua were also used for the ama. These two woods are buoyant and lightweight as is hau, but they are stronger and better suited for larger canoes.

Traditionally, hau branches were piled near the shoreline to indicate fishing was kapu, because spawning was occurring in that area.

Cork-like hau wood pieces were used as floats on fishnets. The soft wood was also helpful in making fires. A pointed piece of hau was rubbed in a groove of a harder wood, such as kukui. The dust particles of hau that rubbed apart would smolder as the rubbing increased. Then small pieces of coconut fiber or bits of tapa bark cloth were ignited from the hau, and the fire was next put to grasses, sticks and finally to wood.

Adze handles were most often made of hau, as were light-weight practice spears, massage sticks, brooms, and the cross-beams for kites.

Hau cordage, called `ili hau, provided tying material used daily. The cordage is made by cutting off stems and younger smooth branches, making a slit lengthwise and removing the bark with the hands. The bark strips are then soaked. When the outer bark is slipped off, remaining are cream-colored smooth fibers for braiding and twisting into cordage. For some uses the outer bark isn't removed, eventually falling off with use. Hau cordage provided ropes for hauling and many other needs: slings; canoe lashing; strings for bows; net bags; carrying handles for water-gourds; fasteners for lauhala baskets; shark nooses; strands for lei making; strainers for coconut cream and `awa drinks; sewing material to piece together tapa cloth for clothing and bedding; a form of tapa itself; hula skirts of hau bark; sandals; and cord for snapping dyes into line designs onto tapa cloth.

Hau grows well near the ocean, streams, and in moist sloping areas up to the 2000 foot elevation. This shrub spreads to form a creeping jungle of interwoven, curved and twisted springy arching branches. Sometimes trunks up to 12 feet long recline to form roots where they touch the ground. These become impenetrable places.

The leaves are heart-shaped and round, from 2 to 12 inches in diameter. They are leathery, with a smooth surface, while the underside is velvety and consists of matted white hairs. Sometimes the leaf edges are scalloped, but usually not.

Hau is a true hibiscus, whose flowers have five crepe-like petals with a central column. The 2-3 inch long bright yellow cup-shaped flowers have reddish centers, and form at the ends of the branches. As the day goes by, the flower changes color to orange and then to reddish-brown, before it falls off the plant, usually by the next morning. The inch long dry downy brown fruiting capsule contains 5 valves, each with 3 smooth seeds.

In home gardens, hau is propagated from cuttings, and the trunks can be trained to create a garden shelter or arbor called a lanai hau. This plant is also grown as a natural fence barrier.

A slimy juicy sap found in the dome of the flowerbud and in the bark was used as a mild laxative. For babies and young children, the flowerbuds were used; and, for adults and older children, the small white dome-shaped bump inside the bottom of the flower petals was used. The buds were also chewed and eaten for dry-throat. Slime from soaking the bark of the stems was medicine for congested chests. The lubricant quality of the inner bark was of value as an enema or could assist in the passage of a baby at childbirth.

One Hawai`i legend says that hau is a sister of the goddess Hina, changed into a tree. The people of Tahiti say hau is the grandchild of heaven and earth. Some people equate the brief span of the hau flower as representative of the transitory nature of human life.

IPU

Kanaka Maoli, the original Hawai`i people, used no pottery. For containers, they grew the beautiful and functional hard-shelled and thick-walled hue/gourd, better known as ipu. The ipu have long been used as rattles and drums for chant and dance. Related to the squash, watermelon and cucumber, more than 100 varieties were grown in the old days.

Lageneria siceraria and vulgaris is a native of tropical Asia and Africa. Brought by seed in the canoes of migrating Polynesians, ipu were used during the voyages as water bottles (hue`wai or `olowai), as canoe bailers and as receptacles in which to store fish hooks, fish line, bait, medicine and food.

The spirit of fertility that is the god Lono is embodied in the ipu, which is considered kinolau, body form, of Lono.

A climbing vine, ipu is traditionally planted after the rainy season, during the Hua moon phase, 3-4 days before the full moon. The word hua means fruit. During the flowering stage, when male and female flowers are present, hand pollination is necessary, usually at dusk or night, when the flowers bloom. The flowers are single, small (1 1/12 inches long) and white. Wide-spreading vines with downy, branched tendrils bear rounded heart-shaped hairy leaves. The leaves are 5 lobed and from 4 to16 inches in diameter. As the vine grows, it needs support, such as a rock wall, a tree, or home-made trellis. During the 6-9 months that the ipu fruit takes to mature, they must be carefully tended and protected from stinging and biting insects that like to lay their eggs in the young developing fruit. Coverings of mosquito netting are one way of dealing with this problem. To prevent mold, supports are used to suspend the fruit and mounds of grass or straw are placed beneath the gourd where it contacts the earth. Sometimes green, sometimes white or mottled, the gourds vary in shape and size, according to their variety. They can also be shaped by wrapping or tying them with cord, while they are maturing. Soft and sometimes hairy, the immature fruit becomes smooth as it matures. More varieties have been grown in Hawai`i than elsewhere in Polynesia.

A sunny site on the leeward side, below the 1500 foot elevation, is the best growing place for ipu, although adequate rainfall or irrigation, good drainage and shelter from the wind are all necessary ingredients for fruitful growth. Less water is needed in the last few months of growth. A loamy, sandy soil with crushed lava is best, and of course, lots of room for the spreading vines. To produce the most gourds from each plant, the central vine is cut off at 8-10 feet or earlier, to stimulate extending branches with more female blossoms.

Decorating techniques can begin while the fruit is green. Incised designs will remain and will be darker after drying. The gourd is harvested when the stem is dry, by cutting several inches of stem with a sharp implement. Curing and preserving techniques are being explored and relearned these days. Many months are necessary for the process of curing. Most growers leave the gourd intact until it is dry and the seeds rattle inside when shaken. Other growers open the ipu at the top and scrape out the pulp and seeds, traditionally with an opihi shell, then filling the ipu with a saltwater solution, or with sand. Sometimes an injection dye is used as a decorative technique. These dyes can be made from manmade or plant dyes, such as those with tannic acid, like kukui root bark, kukui leaves mixed with alae dirt, coffee or tea, or the oxalic acid of kalo. These later stages of gourd preparation can often be tricky and varied, and some "failures" do occur in the process.

Traditional gourds were called `umeke pohue. Most were simply left their natural color, which is golden brown when dry, but some were decorated with geometric designs, pawhe, and then stained. This was done only in Hawai`i. The necks were closed off with a stopper, made from a shell, carved wood, coral or a folded leaf. Larger gourds, ipu nui, were used to store food and bigger objects, such as folded tapa cloth and feather regalia. These had lids made from the curved bottom of another gourd. Where a gourd needed to be carried or lifted, cordage was used, made of wauke, `ahu`awa, olona, `aha and other fibers. With a carry net, koko, they could be carried and swung on `auamo mamaka, a shoulder pole.

Ipu were used as dippers, syringes for medicinal purposes, as pots and as eating utensils such as dishes, bowls and mugs. They were also used to store dye, and as burial receptacles for bones.

A small pear-shaped nose whistle called ipu hokiokio is unique to Hawai`i. It is softly played by one lover to another.

In hula, the `uli`uli is used. These are rattles made of small ipu filled with pebbles or the seeds of the canna lily, called ali`ipoe. With an attached handle, these rattles are usually capped with a disc of cloth, and fringed with feathers. Another plant, originally from South America, is nowadays often used for `uli`uli. It is la`amia (Cresentia cujete), the fruit of the calabash tree. Ipu hula, pa`ipu, ipu heke are all names for the hula drum. This musical implement is made by joining a smaller pear-shaped ipu at its top end to the top end of a larger pear-shaped ipu with kepau, the sticky latex sap of breadfruit/ulu. Of course, man-made glues are most often used today. Looped at the juncture of the ipu is a braid of cordage of `aha, coconut fiber, which can be place around the wrist of the performer. The ipu bottom is thumped on the ground, usually on a cloth, and slapped with the hand to create a resonance and beat for the dancers or chanters. A single ipu with a cut open neck, called ipu heke `ole, is also used to accompany hula and chants.

Gourds were a part of ancient legends, myths and rituals, and were sometimes worn by priests as masks during religious ceremonies. The cosmology of an ipu is said to be that it spreads and puts forth fruit, like humankind over the earth. The gourd also represents the earth, with the seeds of all beings contained within.

KALO

The life of Kanaka Maoli, the indigenous Hawai`i people, is linked closely with kalo, also knows as the taro plant. Kalo is believed to have the greatest life force of all foods. According to the Kumulipo, the creation chant, kalo grew from the first-born son of Wakea (sky father) and Papa (earth mother), through Wakea's relationship with his and Papa's daughter, Ho`ohokulani. Haloa-naka, as the son was named, was stillborn and buried. Out of his body grew the kalo plant, also called Haloa, which means everlasting breath. Kalo and poi (pounded kalo) are a means of survival for the Hawai`i people. By eating kalo as poi, one at a time as a ritual around the poi bowl (`umeke) at the center of the diners, the protocol of Hawai`i is maintained. This is a ceremony of life that brings people together and supports a relationship of `ohana (family) and of appreciation with the `aumakua (ancestors).

From early times, kalo was the primary food of the Hawai`i people, supplemented by other principal and traditional foods: breadfruit (`ulu), sweet potato (`uala), yams, greens, ferns, fruit, fish and seaweed (limu).

Taro came to Hawai`i Nei with the earliest Polynesian settlers in their canoes and has been cultivated as a staple and staff of life from ancient times in the tropical and subtropical latitudinal band around the earth. Taro grows in tropical Africa, the West Indies, the Pacific nations and in countries bordering the Indian Ocean in South Asia. In Hawai`i, where cultivation has been the most intense, in the early days there were more than 300 varieties of taro. Approximately 87 of these varieties are still recognized today, with slight differences in height, stalk color, leaf or flower color, size, and root type. Some of the local varieties are Mo`i, Lehua, Ha`akea and Chinese.

Taro, whose scientific name is Colocasia esculenta (or antiquorum) is cultivated both in the uplands as high as 4,000 feet, and in marshy land irrigated by streams. The plant is a hearty succulent perennial herb, with clusters of long heart or arrowhead-shaped leaves that point earthward. Taro grows on erect stems that may be green, red (lehua), black or variegated. The new leaf and stem push out of the innermost stalk, unrolling as they emerge. The stems are usually several feet high. Tiny new plants appear around the base of the root corm. The pua, inflorescence, is an open yellow-white tube, enclosing a spike covered with flowers.

The whole plant: the kalo (corm) and luau (leaves) are eaten, and the huli are replanted.

The traditional method of pounding kalo into poi. Various stages of preparation are shown: the freshly harvested kalo, the huli for replanting, the cooked kalo, and the peeled kalo on the board ready for pounding.

In the kalo and poi-based agricultural society, the people of ancient Hawai`i were dependent on wetland taro. Great skills were needed to terrace, cultivate and irrigate the land along streams, as well as the social and political skills to maintain it. The planters of wetland taro were practicing engineers, building walls of earth reinforced with stone to enclose the lo`i (pond field). Along the banks of the lo`i were planted mai`a (banana), ko (sugarcane), ki (ti), and wauke (paper mulberry) for kapa cloth, also known as tapa. In the pond field, several varieties of fish were grown, such as `awa, `ama`ama, o`opu and aholehole. An acre of wet lo`i could produce 3 to 5 tons of food per year. Dryland taro was grown in the lower forests where the soil was rich and the rainfall sufficient. Stone borders surrounded these gardens and can still be found on a forest hike.

Today there are still functional lo`i along the Keanae, Wailua and Hana coastlines of Maui, as well as other locations throughout these Hawai`i islands.

A taro farmer exemplifies self-sufficient stewardship of natural resources through hard work. There is wisdom in encouraging and supporting community as well as back-yard cultivation of this valuable food.

In planting both wetland and dryland taro, the huli, the planting material, consists of a 1/2 inch thick slice of the top of the kalo (corm, from which derives the plant's name) attached to 6 to 10 inches of the leaf-stem. These protrude above the water or dryland where planted.

The bottom of the corm/root is saved for cooking and eating, making taro a recyclable plant. In 6 to 12 months, depending upon plant variety along with soil and water conditions, the taro should be ready to harvest. Each parent tuber produces from two to l5 `oha, side tubers of corms, up to 6 inches in diameter. `Oha means specifically the suckers or shoots concentrically growing from the corm of the kalo/taro plant. Knowing this, it is easy to understand why the Hawai`i family as a group is termed `ohana, which literally means "all from the shoots".

Before kalo can be eaten, all parts of the plant must be cooked, in order to break down the needle-like calcium oxalate crystals present in the leaves, stem and corm. These could be extremely irritating to the throat and mouth lining, causing an acrid burning and stinging sensation.

Lu`au is the name of the edible taro leaf, from the word lau, leaf. The lu`au leaf is another kinolau of Lono. Lu`au supplies high amounts of vitamins A, B and C, as well as calcium, iron, phosphorus, thiamine and riboflavin. The cooked corm and poi have fewer vitamins, but are an excellent carbohydrate source and have the ability to balance the pH factor in the body, as they are an alkali producing food.

The following are a few of the medicinal uses of poi and the kalo plant. Poi is used to settle the stomach. Mixed with ripe noni fruit, it can be applied topically for boils. Poi can be mixed with pia (arrowroot starch) and taken for diarrhea. Undiluted poi is sometimes used as a poultice on infected sores. A piece of taro stem, haha, can be touched to the skin to stop surface bleeding. Some infections respond to the use of taro leaves mashed with Hawai`i salt. This poultice can be applied to an injury, covered and wrapped with a large taro leaf. For a sting from an insect, the stem can be cut and rubbed on the afflicted area.

Mud from the taro patch was used as a black dye for lauhala and kapa cloth, while some leaf-stem juice yielded red dye. Also, diluted poi was used as a paste to glue together pieces of kapa cloth.

The kalo plant is said to be the hiapo, the number one sibling. It is also said to be the kinolau, the body form, of Kane, the procreator. The small round depression where the taro stalk meets the leaf surface is called the piko, from whence comes the name for the human belly button.

If we want to learn more about kalo and how to grow it, it is a good idea to talk to the farmers who already grow it. Many of these are eager to share their knowledge and expertise and many fascinating stories about this plant so central to the life of Hawai`i and her people. Exchanging stories and taro varieties with friends and neighbors is the Hawai`i way.

As kumu Kawaikapuokalani Hewitt said "Our existence depends on Haloa, our elder brother, the Kalo."

May the mother nation Hawai`i live forever through the poi!

KAMANI

A member of the mangosteen family with the scientific name of Calophyllum inophyllum, kamani was brought north to Hawai`i from the South Pacific islands in early migrations of Polynesian settlers. Also called Alexandrian laurel, true kamani was probably introduced by seed, which is how it is propagated. This native of the Pacific and of tropical Africa, grows slowly along sandy shores and in lowland forests. It was cultivated in villages, near houses and also in groves away from villages. When found growing in windy areas it is sometimes in a picturesque, crooked or misshapen form.

True kamani is not to be confused with "false kamani," a common tropical almond that grows profusely along the shores of Hawai`i. This false kamani or "kamani haole" was introduced after the first white settlers arrived, and has the scientific name of Teminalia catappa. It was planted for shade and as an ornamental, also growing from the edible seed in its corky pod that washes ashore with waves and currents.

True kamani is a large attractive spreading tree up to 60 feet high, with a rounded head of dense foliage and rough grey bark. A reddish-brown hardwood is derived from the trunk. From this was carved many objects including canoes; homes; `umeke la`au, wooden containers or calabash, specifically `umeke kamani, food bowls and trays called pa kamani. As with milo and kou wood, there is no bad-tasting taste or odor in kamani wood, so it is perfect for vessels that will be contacting or containing food.

The leaves of kamani are large, stiff, shiny, leathery and oblong with a blunt tip. They are 3-8 inches long, arranged opposite each other and have closely placed fine parallel veins running from a prominent raised yellow-green midrib to the leaf margin.

When new, the delightfully fragrant flowers are small, 1 inch wide, and white with 4-8 petals. They smell like orange blossoms and were used to give fragrance to kapa cloth, and also for lei making. They are waxy and showy with golden yellow stamens and a pink pistil, and grow in clusters of a dozen or so flowers found hanging from a long stalk.

The fruit begins pinkish-green, rounds out to about 2 inches long and becomes bright green. When mature, it has a thin leathery dark grey-brownish skin which covers a bony shell that holds a partly poisonous kernel or seed surrounded by a cork-like substance. A lamp oil for light was produced from the kernel and was used at times instead of kukui nut oil. The kernel is called a "punnai nut" in some areas of the Pacific, and the oil is dark, green, thick and called "dilo oil." Sometimes this oil is useful for lomi lomi, massage, especially when enhanced with coconut oil or flower fragrances. The oil may have been useful in waterproofing tapa cloth. Kamani (or tamani) oil from other Polynesian nations is now being imported to Hawaii for use as an oil to heal the skin.

The seed, leaves, gum and bark are said to have medicinal properties. In the old days an extract from the fruit was used to make a brown dye to color tapa cloth.

Kamani was often planted around heiau, temples. Kamani was mentioned in early chants, and considered a sacred tree in parts of Polynesia. An especially fine grove is to be found on the island of Moloka`i.

KI

Ki, the Ti plant, grows abundantly, cultivated and wild, throughout the tropical Pacific and Southeast Asia. It is common from sea level in the lower wetlands, up to the 4,000 foot elevation. Ti is found in shady moist gardens, as a landscaping background plant or as a hedge. The people of Hawai`i plant it around their homes and churches for good luck. In the old days Ki was planted around the lo`i, taro ponds. The botanical or scientific name of this member of the lily family is Cordyline terminalis. It may have originated in tropical Asia and Australia.

Introduced to Hawai`i by the earliest Polynesian settlers, Ki is considered sacred to the Hawai`i god Lono and to the goddess of the hula, Laka. It is also an emblem of high rank and divine power. The Hawai`i feather kahili is said to have been inspired by this plant. The leaves are also worn or carried as protection to ward off so-called evil spirits and to call in good. The kahuna priests wore ti leaves either as lei or as garments when they conducted ancient ceremonial rituals. Ti leaves are still used often today in religious ceremonies conducted by Hawai`i's multi-racial clergy, especially at opening ceremonies to bless new buildings and projects.

The ti's versatile leaves have many uses, including: as wrappings for offerings; for roof thatching; as fly whisks or fans; wrappings for cool food storage, preservation and protection; for wrapping of food to be cooked, especially for laulau; as plates or cups; as fishing lures on hukilau nets; as wearing apparel, such as rain capes, sandals and as hula skirts called pa`u; and, more recently, as feed for cattle and horses. Ti leaves are also decorative; they are braided, twisted or woven into lei for numerous special and celebratory occasions; used as a covering for lu`au tables; and, they provide Hawai`i's tropical flower industry with a wonderful variety of foliage for impressive floral arrangements.

Ti (pronounced tee) has tall, sparingly branched wood stalks 3 to 12 feet high. The tightly spiraled leaf cluster is in a tuft at the top of the ringed stalk. The plant's green leaves are pointed, oval and blade- shaped, about 4 inches wide and vary from 1 to 2 feet long. As new leaves form at the center, the outside older leaves turn yellow and fall, leaving a circular ring on the plant's stalk. The thick, shiny and flexible leaves do not wilt quickly, making them useful for many purposes, some as already mentioned. Varieties of the ti plant have colored foliage and variously shaped leaves, called lauki, la`i, laki or lau`i. Besides the original and sacred green ki, the plant ranges in leaf color from pale white and yellow with green tones, to reds, covering a broad spectrum from pale to pink to a maroon, that appears almost black.

The plant's flower stalk emerges in winter. With the coming of spring, a many-branched drooping cluster of flowers comes into bloom. Its hundreds of tiny half-inch lilac-whitish purple flowers resemble miniature lilies. White or red berries follow the flowering stage, especially in varieties other than the green.

This versatile plant has many medicinal uses, either alone or as a wrapping for other herbs needing to be steamed or boiled. For fever, the entire body of an unclothed prone person was covered from the neck down with large green ti leaves. After the patient sweat and fever was broken, the leaves were removed. Drinks of fresh water were given to the patient during this process, which took several hours. Cool, freshly washed damp green ti leaves, held and wrapped around the forehead and temples, can be helpful in relieving headache and fever. The center of ti, mole ki, is often picked and unfurled for this use. Hot stones are wrapped in ki leaves and used to soothe sore back muscles.

A drink from boiled green ti leaves is used to aid nerve and muscle relaxation. Steam from boiled young shoots and leaves makes an effective decongestant. The pleasantly fragrant flowers are also used for asthma, when prepared with other plants.

A popular use of this plant was in making Okolehao, affectionately called oke, a potent liquor much like a clear brandy. This brew is distilled from a ferment of baked mashed ti root, a practice being renewed in modern times. The root is thick, white and sweet, growing very large in older plants. The baked roots are also an emergency famine food and have been eaten as a confection.

Children of old Hawai`i (and modern times, too) enjoyed sliding down steep grassy slopes on ti leaf sleds, holding onto the stem towards the front. Whistles can also be made from the plant's leaf.

New plants propagate easily from cuttings and grow best where sunlight and moisture are both available. The stem cutting can be planted vertically for one plant, or horizontally for several.

The ki plant is common, we see and recognize it everywhere throughout this Hawai`i Nei. It is common, yet it is very special. It speaks to us of strength and survival, and the abundance of blessings we receive daily here in Hawai`i.

KO

How paradoxical that such a graceful and sweet-tasting plant could be controversial. Simple were the days when ko, sugar cane, began its life here in Hawai`i, brought by Polynesian settlers in their canoes sailing forth. This plant travels well, plants easily, and is a pleasant addition to life. Only later came the days when other settlers began to grow sugar cane hybrids commercially. Modern-day hybrid sugar production causes concerns: to burn the fields or not, as their heat and the pollutants released all contribute to our personal health and the local and global environment...to eat the white sugar crystals that are processed from the original sap or not, as the overuse of this substance can become addictive and harmful to the immune system and good health of many people... yet, the glorious beauty of fields of green cane waving in the trade winds cannot be denied.

In earlier times, the people of Hawai`i grew nearly 40 varieties of ko. Some of them were grown in clumps near their homes. These giant grasses were also planted on the embankments of the lo`i, taro ponds. Ko is a kinolau of Kane.

A few varieties were used for medicines. Ko sweetens many medicinal concoctions, and the juice of pan-toasted sugar cane can be used as a tonic for babies.

One of the few varieties used medicinally is ko kea, white cane, a native cane with yellowish-green stem and a thin skin that can be easily removed or crushed. This juice is popular as an ingredient in herbal combinations. It helps to make bad-tasting medicine taste better. Honua`ula, red cane, and the dark-colored ko lahi are also considered to have particular healing properties.

Young ko shoots were used for lacerations and cuts. Along with other plants and salt, the shoots were wrapped in ti leaves and baked over charcoal. The juice was then squeezed and placed on a cut.

The juices of ko are used to sweeten haupia and kulolo desserts, made of coconut and taro, respectively. The leaves of ko were used for inside house thatching, or for outside if pili grass wasn't available. The flower stalks of sugar cane were used to fashion a dart, sometimes used during the Makahiki games for the Hawai`i New Year.

This plant makes an effective windbreak, and is also planted as a hedge or border. To propagate, plant sections of the mature upper portion of the stalk, using those pieces that have several nodes on them. Each node will create a new stalk. Dig a trench 6-8 inches deep and plant an 8-12 inch section sideways in the earth. Ko likes a lot of sunshine and also moisture, and whenever possible, a rich soil. Traditionally, sugar cane was planted in November-December.

For a treat, have a chew on a joint of your home-grown ko, the garden variety which has a thin rind and is easy to chew because of its soft pulp. Or, when hiking, carry a section of ko along, to slake your thirst.

KOU

Because of the beauty of its grain and the ease with which it can be cut and carved, true kou is one of the best timber trees in Hawai`i. Cordia subcordata is the botanical name of this plant. Kou is widespread throughout Polynesia and the entire Pacific region, tropical Asia and East Africa, and was probably introduced by seed to Hawai`i in the canoes of the earliest settlers as a useful plant they wished to cultivate. (Recent pollen studies in the Makauwahi Sinkhole at Maha'ulepu on Kaua'i have found that kou was part of the coastal forest on Kaua'i thousands of years before the first Polynesians set foot on the archipelago, but kou was important enough to Polynesians that it was likely introduced as a canoe plant as well.)

A member of the Heliotrope family (Boraginaceae), kou is a small to medium-sized erect evergreen tree that grows to a 30-40 foot height at maturity. This plant grows easily and quickly from seed, preferring sunny warm coastal lowlands in the islands' leeward areas. It was cultivated near settlements, and is only occasionally found in the wild forests. Because of its thick wide crown of leaves, kou was a favorite shade tree near home sites. Beneath its cool shelter, the women beat the kapa cloth or would string lei, as they shared the day together.

The straight and erect trunk of kou is pale grey, with grooved and flaky or stringy bark. Within the trunk can be found a heartwood with beautiful colored markings that are reddish dark brown, sometimes with a hint of purple. The sapwood is straw color, with a tint of pink. In the medium soft and durable wood are grain markings, some straight and some of which are wavy with dark and light lines and bands of yellow. The texture is medium fine, and the density is considered medium. The wood is long-lasting, and has little shrinkage. Therefore, large and stable vessels can be made. These were usually carved by the same men who made the wa`a, canoes. These men knew how to season and how to gracefully shape the woods they used for the best and most practical purposes, and how to finish them so that a fine patina was achieved and their beauty would endure. Because of the good workability of kou, it is fashioned into `umeke la`au, containers of wood, crafted with great skill, as well as being aesthetically pleasing. `Umeke kou, food bowls, and specifically poi bowls called `umeke `ai, platters called pa kou, cups and serving dishes of kou were all preferred, because there is no unpleasant taste in the sap that would flavor food. Also made from kou wood were canoes, paddles, back scratchers, calabashes and boxes, fish hook containers and other carved objects, such as images of deities.

Kou leaves are smooth, large and oval, with a pointed end and rounded base. They are alternately arranged and are about 4 inches long. The leaf stem is 1/2 to 3 inches long. The leaves have wavy edges with prominent midrib and veins. In the old days kou leaves were used to make a brown dye that was applied in designs on kapa. It is said that banyan (ficus) fruit was added to kou leaves to make a fine red dye for tapa cloth.

The showy orange flowers of kou have no scent, and are one inch long, 1-2 inches across, with 5-7 lobes. They grow in clusters on short stalks, and are used as a lei flower.

The fruit is nearly round, one inch long, growing in small clusters. The green fruit changes color to yellow and then to black as they dry and become hard. They contain a "stone" with 1-4 seeds.

Kou occurs in ancient legends of Polynesia, one of which suggests that kou was one of the first trees created.

KUKUI

When I first rode to Hana years ago, I noticed the kukui trees, distinctive in their pale green silvery foliage, growing on the slopes of the mountain. Over the years, I have come to love these ancestors that thrive here in Hawai`i Nei, some so large as 50 feet. The tree is a symbol of enlightenment, protection and peace. Kukui was considered to be the body form of Kamapua'a, the pig god. On the altar of Lono was placed a wooden carving shaped like a pig's head.

The seeds of this plant were brought to Hawai`i by the first Polynesian voyagers. Today this member of the Spurge family commonly grows wild in the lower mountain forest areas and is planted in gardens as a shade tree, although it is a bit messy due to dropping its leaves and nuts, up to 100 pounds per tree. Its scientific name is Aleurites moluccana.

The kukui nut has many uses. Originally it was most valued for its light, the oil of the white kernels being extracted for its use in stone lamps and in ti leaf sheath torches. The shelled nuts were skewered on a coconut frond mid-rib and lit one by one, from the top to bottom, as they sat in a container of sand or dirt, or in the earth itself. Often children were given the responsibility for keeping the "candles" lit. The tree is sometimes called the Candlenut Tree. The nuts are widely used as a traditional lei, both the hard shells of the polished black, tan or brown, and immature white, which are more rare. The white flowers and downy, angularly pointed leaves are also strung as lei, representing Moloka`i, whose symbolic color is silvery green. The bark, flowers and nuts are all used for medicine. As food, a small amount of the pounded roasted nuts, plus salt and sometimes chili peppers, is used as a relish and is called `inamona.

The small, five-petaled white flowers were chewed by the parents of a young child and given to the child to aid in healing of e`a (thrush) sores inside the mouth and upon the tongue. Also used for this problem was the juicy sap that fills up the depression left when the stem is pulled off the green fruit. This is applied with the finger and rubbed inside of the child's mouth and on the tongue. The green fruit is the part of the plant that contains the nut. This sap is also a healing application for chapped lips, cold sores and mild sunburn.

One mashed nut (sometimes the raw kernel, sometimes the roasted) or the sap of the green nut was often used in combination with other traditional Hawai`i medicinal plants, particularly when a purgative for constipation was needed. The potency of this plant is so strong that these internal remedies are administered very carefully by those with experience in these matters. The late Uncle Harry Mitchell of Keanae recommended the use of kukui nut for high blood pressure. He suggested one teaspoon a day of the ground roasted kernel. Sometimes this is mixed with pressed garlic juice.

For bad cases of ulcers and other skin sores, the baked meat of ripe kukui nuts was pounded and mixed with other plants, such as ripe noni fruit. In the treatment of rheumatic joints or deep bruises and wounds, kukui and noni leaves were wrapped around the afflicted places and heat applied by hot packs of salt, sand or rocks wrapped in tapa cloth.

The inner bark provided a red-brown dye for tapa cloth and `olona cordage, while the gum from the bark strengthened the tapa. The soot (pau) of burned nuts provided a black dye for tattooing and for painting designs on canoes and ontapa cloth. The soft light-colored wood of the tree trunk was fashioned into canoes. The oil provided a varnish similar to linseed oil.

The kukui tree is a classic example of the wisdom of ancient voyaging Polynesians. The plants that they chose to bring on their canoes had to serve many useful purposes. The kukui is such a plant.

MAI`A

Polynesian legends, proverbs and similes abound about mai`a. Hawai`i legend tells that a brother of Pele brought the banana to Hawai`i from Tahiti. It is believed to be bad luck to dream of bananas, to meet someone who carries them, or to bring them on a fishing trip. Some similes speak of a person's skin being like a ripe banana or of a person being as beautiful as a young banana leaf. Many tales regard the banana plant as a person. Mai`a is kinolau, the body form, of Kanaloa, the Hawaiian god of healing.

There are more than 50 varieties of Musa paradisiaca. Descendants of the early plants are now growing wild in protected valleys, stream gullies and mountain slopes. This common edible fruit native to the tropics ripens all year. Diseases and pests are rare.

Bananas are not really a tree, but are a gigantic herb, being a member of the grass family, like wheat, rye and barley. The fibrous stems, trunks that may be as tall as 20 feet, are up to 8 inches in diameter and are made up of overlapping leaf bases (sheaths). A cross section of the succulent trunk looks like a huge onion slice. The leaves are spirally arranged, rising higher than the stems. Tightly rolled at first, they push their way outward, lubricated by a white waxy powder. The leaf stems become thick, with smooth large blades, usually 4 or more feet long and 1-2 feet wide. These are entire at first, appearing as large rounded blades. They soon split along parallel side veins to appear like a large feather. Wind assists the process.

After the plant reaches full growth, a flower cluster forces its way up through the compressed layers of the leaf sheaths that make up the trunk. The flowers are borne on a thick erect or drooping stem, issuing from the top of the trunk or at the center of the leaf cluster, commonly in flat groups under a large dark to light colored purple-red or green bract. Male flowers are at the stem tip, female flowers at the stem base. The calyx is tubular, soon splitting on one side. There is a corolla with one petal and approximately 6 stamen. The flowers set fruit without pollination and then drop their purple leathery petals one by one. It takes about a year for the plant to produce mature fruit. Each healthy banana plant bears 5 to 9 rows, or hands, of bananas.

To harvest the fruit the entire trunk is cut down, often with one or two swipes of a machete. This can occur when the first banana skin turns yellow, or earlier if the bananas are to be used for cooking, rather than eating while ripe. The trunk is then chopped up and placed as necessary mulch around the base of the clump. Before mulching, one might seek out the banana's heart, which is a round cylindrical white tube with a smooth shiny cover. This lies inside the layers of bark fiber. It can be cooked and is like celery, with a texture and taste similar to bamboo shoots. Fruit varies in size, shape, color, quality and quantity. The pulp may be white, yellow or shades of pink. Some are known as plantain. The raw mature fruit is a sugar and an easily digested source of carbohydrate. The cooked fruit becomes a starch. Green unripe bananas can be boiled or baked in their skins, and are usually eaten as a starch, replacing potatoes, bread or taro. Surplus ripe bananas can be peeled and frozen for later use. They can also be sun-dried on screens, or in an indoor oven or dehydrator machine.

Bananas are a good source of potassium and vitamin A, contain some vitamin B, and a fair amount of vitamin C. They are a fair source of phosphorus and contain some calcium and iron.

Except for two varieties, the yellow fleshed mai`a iho lena and mai`a popo`ula, bananas were kapu, forbidden for women of Hawai`i to eat under penalty of death until the early l800's.

New plants develop quickly from underground stems, usually forming clumps of plants. The new plants are called keiki, children. The mai`a rhizome puts forth pohuli, suckers. Cutting out and transplanting excess pohuli helps to promote fruit production. Keeping two keiki per parent plant seems to work out best. The Hawai`i way is to give extra plants to a friend's garden or to plant them in the wild for times of scarcity. Traditionally, mai`a was planted in clumps around the taro lo`i, pond fields, as well as near dwelling sites.

There are many planting rituals, times and beliefs to ensure productivity. Sometimes planting occurs on the night of the full moon, when the moon is shining straight into the hole. Some people plant at high noon, so that the banana will contain the shadow and the strength will go into the trunk and fruit.

In order to plant, dig a large deep hole, as large as an arm, from elbow to fingertips, ha`ilima. This depth is important to support the shallow root system. For proper propagation, the hole needs good drainage and to be in a place protected from strong winds. Mai`a appear to be sturdy, but have no wood in them for support. They are pure fiber and are 80% water. Copious amounts of water are required to bring these plants to maturity. They also thrive on humus, mulch and plenty of sunshine.

Mai`a has multitudinous uses, in addition to food. Every part of this plant is useful. Leaves: for house roofs, umbrellas and rain hats, as a truce flag, bowl covers, table cloths and temporary mats, cigarette papers, clothing and temporary sandals, dyes, packing material, cattle feed, and as covering for the earth oven, imu, to hold in the heat. Leaf buds: as a vegetable. Leaf sheaths: for water runways, and as containers for lei and plants being transported. Leaf sheath fiber: thatching, stringing lei, tying, plaiting into clothing, cloth and thread. Trunks: to aid canoes as rollers enroute from the shore to the sea; the stalks of a mature felled tree are placed in the imu to add moisture and to create steam in the cooking process; and a dried trunk could be used as support for a person's fractured limb.

Bananas teach us patience as they grow and ripen slowly.

MILO

There are those who say that the beautifully grained milo wood utensils, furnishings and jewelry were only for the chiefs of ancient Hawai`i. It is told that the Waikiki home of Kamehameha I was surrounded by milo trees.

Although rare today, in old Hawai`i milo was a commonly found tree, cultivated as a shade plant around homes near sunny coastal areas with loose soil. It does not grow in the high inland forests.

Brought to these islands by early Polynesian settlers who carried the seeds, this fast-growing evergreen tree was planted around the temples in Tahiti, as it was said to be spiritually connected to the chant and to prayer. It is a widespread species throughout Polynesia and Micronesia, as well as in tropical Africa.

Milo's scientific name is Thespesia populnea, and it is also known as a portia tree. A member of the Hibiscus family, the malvacceae, it is a close relative of hau, `ilima, and ma`o, Hawai`i cotton.

The bark of milo was used for cordage fiber, similarly to hau, but it is inferior in quality to hau and to olona. The tree also yields tannin, dye, oil, medicine and gum, from various parts of the plant. The milo wood was skillfully crafted into poi bowls called `umeke `ai, and into plates, too. Calabashes/bowls of kou wood were more highly prized than those of milo, and were more often used.

`Umeke `ai is an honored implement in a Hawai`i home, for through the ceremony of eatingpoi one at a time from the bowl at the center, the traditions and protocol of Kanaka Maoli is maintained. The `umeke `ai filled with kalo (taro) is considered the means of survival of the people of Hawai`i Nei.

`Umeke la`au is the Hawai`i name for these containers or calabashes of wood, which were used for the storage, transport and serving of food in various stages of preparation. Milo wood is flavorless, since it is lacking in any unpleasant-tasting sap that could contaminate stored food.

The milo tree is a small to medium-sized one, growing to less than 40 feet high. The trunk can be 2 feet in diameter at full maturity. The bark is corrugated, with scaly twigs. The branches are widely spread and usually horizontal, making for an ideal shade tree. The glossy heart-shaped leaves are 3-5 inches across. Young leaves are edible. Bell-shaped pale yellow flowers with maroon or purple centers turn purplish-pink as they with in their short one day hibiscus life. Following the flowering stage, the one inch diameter seeds grow in globular 5-celled woody cases that have downy hairs on their surface. These remain on the plant for sometime, and ripen only in areas of dry climate.

Milo wood has an attractive grain that takes to a high polish and, in addition to food utensils and containers, was fashioned into paddles and other carved objects, as well as for an occasional canoe, although koa was considered to be the most popular material for canoes.

NIU

What a magnificent plant is the graceful coconut! Niu is probably the most easily recognized and best known palm tree in the world. This tree is strong, resilient and can provide us with our most basic need for life - water! I am told that the most sterile water on earth is from this nut. There are stories of island and coastal people surviving months of drought with this the only drinking water available. Coconut water and fish can provide sustenance.

Cocos nucifer, niu's scientific and botanical name, is slender and tall, up to 100 feet, with a cluster of leaves at the top of a slightly curved stem or trunk. It has a swollen base which is ringed, making a perfect ladder for the very agile. These steps mark points of attachment of the fallen leaf fronds, which are from 10 to 18 feet long. The trunk is very strong and elastic, and is able to bend in heavy winds. In times of hurricanes the coconut palm has been a life saver. People lashing themselves to this flexible tree have avoided being swept out to sea.

Hawai`i is on the edge of the coconut belt. The coconut bears better nearer the equator, where it is more widely used than here. In Hawai`i there are other plants, native and introduced, that provide as well for people's needs. Niu was valued cargo on the sailing canoes of the original Polynesian voyagers to Hawai`i Nei. Some of the ancestors of our trees also floated ashore, alive for up to 4 months at sea, still able to germinate. Coconuts grow well near the ocean, thriving in sandy soil near salt spray. Our coastlines have the remnants of many ancient groves. Niu is the kinolau of Ku.

This palm is the most useful plant of the tropics. It is said that more uses are made of it than any other tree in the world. Besides drink, food and shade, niu offers the possibilities of housing, thatching, hats, baskets, furniture, mats, cordage, clothing, charcoal, brooms, fans, ornaments, musical instruments, shampoo, containers, implements and oil for fuel, light, ointments, soap and more.

Traditionally, a coconut palm is planted at the birth time of a kama`aina. The tree bears fruit around the seventh birthday, for up to 70-100 years, providing food for a human lifetime. There may be up to 50 fruit a year. A he`e, octopus, was often planted in the bottom of the hole, furnishing fertilizer and giving the plant the idea of roots that spread and grip, and a body that is fat and round.

Nectar-producing fountaining flowers, in a spathe, bloom at any time of year. The budding flower sprays are tapped for their sap, which can yield sweet syrup, vinegar or wine. Left untrimmed, the tree continually produces a prodigious number of nuts, with mature fruit constantly available. It takes 15 months from flower to mature fruit, but the nut (drupe) is usable at about 5 months. The mature fruit is 10 to 12 inches long, usually with 3 sides, having a thick fibrous husk encasing the hard-shelled, one seeded nut. There are 3 pores at one end. One pore may be easily punched to obtain the water.

The perfect drinking nut is full-sized, yet immature. It is green, with no trace of yellow color, and it must be picked. Up to one quart of water is inside, but you can't hear it when you shake it. The yellow or browning coconut is mature when it drops to the ground. There is still some water in the cavity, which can be combined to make coconut milk. Coconut milk is a blend of coconut water and the scrapings of the coconut meat. This milk is a good source of iron and contains calcium, phosphorus, protein and vitamins.

Coconut water, like the taro, is an alkali producer in the digestive system and therefore helps in the important balancing of pH in the human body. Often, a too-acidic body is prone to disease, whereas if the pH is balanced with alkaline-producing foods, the body is more prone to stay in good health.

As food, the niu flesh or meat is used for different purposes, depending upon the maturity of the nut. The jelly-like spoon meat of a green nut is called `o`io. The next stage is haohao, when the shell is still white and the flesh soft and white. Half ripe, at the ho`ilikole state, it is eaten raw with Hawai`i red salt and poi. At the o`o stage, the nut is mature, but the husk not dried. The flesh of a mature nut at the malo`o stage is used to make coconut cream, which when mixed with kalo/taro makes a dish called kulolo; with `uala/sweet potato it is called poipalau; and paipaiee with ripe `ulu/breadfruit. These delicious dessert-like foods were traditionally cooked in the imu, underground oven. Haupia is made with niu cream mixed with pia/Polynesian arrowroot, traditionally wrapped in ti leaves and baked in the imu. The mature meat of coconut is also grated, squeezed or scraped to be cooked in main dishes with fish, chicken or greens.

Medicinally, a small piece of coconut meat was chewed following the ingestion of disagreeable tasting medicines. Fishermen also chewed the meat and spit the oil onto the water, to produce a glossy calm place, smooth enough to spot the fish below the surface.

The malo`o stage is also the stage for planting. Propagation is by planting the whole coconut, usually at its growing site. It is easy to determine the top of the nut by floating it in water. Plant it with this side up, partially cover and keep moist. Germination occurs in four to five months.

If the coconut is to be transplanted, germination should be atop wide screening or loose rocks to prevent the roots from taking hold. The plant should be moved before it is a foot high. The plant responds well to organic fertilization and mulching, particularly as it later begins to bear.

The coconut heart is sometimes eaten as a vegetable, when a felled tree presents itself. The heart is located just below the crown of leaves, and can be as long as a human leg. It keeps fresh for about two weeks. The iho, spongy pulp, in a sprouting nut is also considered choice food.

Wahi ka niu, break open the coconut!

NONI

This is a fascinating plant, demanding of our respect. Its prolific beauty, she bears fruit year round...as if to say, "here I am, please use me." However, as you may already be aware, few of us are willing to make its intimate acquaintance. The aroma of its fruit is truly awesome, somewhat like bleu cheese. Some say "disgusting" or "horrid" or "stinks bad" or worse. And, it doesn't taste good either! Yet, it is well-known to be one of the main healers among the traditional Hawai`i medicinal plants. It is said that this plant food is to be used when we are feeling really ill or really old.

The noni, also known as Indian Mulberry, with the scientific name of Morinda citrifolia, is a small evergreen shrub or tree, usually less than 10 feet high, occasionally rising to 20 feet. The conspicuous large dark green shiny leaves are generally paired, except where forming fruit. Thick and oval in shape, these leaves are deep veined, short-stemmed and 8 inches or longer. The flowers form in globose heads, about an inch long and bearing many small white flowers. The flower heads grow to become mature fruit, 3 to 4 inches in diameter. The fruits resemble those of `ulu, breadfruit, only smaller. The surface is divided into somewhat warty polygonal pitted cells. The noni fruit begins green, turns yellow, and as mentioned, has an unpleasant, insipid, foul or fetid odor, especially as it ripens to whiteness and falls from the tree.

In the early morning, the best time to pick most plants, I have carried a gallon glass jar like the institutional ones for pickles, pule (prayed with) the plant, thanking it for its food. I picked the fruit at its yellow stage, filling the jar and capping it tightly. The jar is placed in a sunny spot, letting it set there for five days to a week or more, until the fruit turns to mush and sun-charged juices drain into the bottom of the jar. It is these juices that can be strained into a cleaner smaller jar, and then refrigerated until used.

Another method taught by Hawai`i's healers is to pick the fruit before ripe, letting it ripen within the home. When soft, place it in a blender with a little fresh water and make into a sauce. Then mash and strain through a sieve. This concoction can be refrigerated in a clean glass jar, and the person who wishes the medicine can take a clean straw and slurp two sucks from the jar, in the morning and in the evening.

As a medicine, the fruit and its juices have been used in the treatment of diabetes, heart troubles and high blood pressure, with different portions prescribed for different illnesses. In these days of ozone depletion, noni is useful in the treatment of skin cancers.

The juices can be diluted with clean water or a fruit juice such as apple, and drunk before meals and at resting periods. Treatment should always be at a relaxed time, not before going to work. It is good to seek the advice of a Hawai`i health practitioner before using any plant medicines. Noni is believed to have been brought here centuries ago by early Polynesian settlers, and is a native of the Pacific islands, Asia and Australia.

The late Uncle Harry Mitchell of Keanae, Maui, suggested using noni with garlic, both being great blood purifiers that enhance the immune system and cleanse bacteria from the body. He also mentioned boiling it for use with diabetes, and using it strained raw for heart problems and high blood pressure, as it is said to increase the flow of blood. Sometimes capsain (cayenne pepper) is added as an ingredient as well.

The young unripe noni fruit can be pounded thoroughly with salt and the mixture placed carefully on deep cuts and on broken bones. Sometimes the juice is squeezed out of this mixture, boiled and applied to the wounds. The ripe fruit can be used as a poultice for facial blemishes, rubbed until the oil disappears, and also to draw out the pus and core from an infected sore or boil, such as with a staph infection. In the old days, this was tied on with a bandage of tapa bark cloth. The dressing of noni could be reapplied more than once for difficult cases.

There are those who eat noni's fruit unripened, either as a food in times of scarcity, or as a tonic when needed. Other people make a tea using the leaves of this plant. The fruit can be used in recipes as a reputed remedy against tuberculosis, arthritis, cancer, rheumatism and the changes of old age. The leaves and bark of the stem can be pounded and strained, resulting in a liquid drunk as a tonic or for urinary disorders, muscle and joint pain. The juice of the fruit is applied to the hair to rid it of head lice, uku, followed whenever possible by a fragrant shampoo of `awapuhi kuahiwi or coconut water.

Other uses for this ancient Polynesian plant: the bark yields a red dye, while a yellow dye can be prepared from the root. Both colors were use to dye the tapa cloth of the chiefs of ancient Hawai`i. Noni is a kinolau of the god Ku.

Noni is a valuable plant to have nearby the home of anyone wishing to utilize the many natural healing properties of this remarkable life sustaining plant. Cultivation is either by seed or cutting.

`OHE

This versatile and giant member of the grass family is able to grow more rapidly than any other plant. After two months of growth it is the size it will remain for its lifetime. Bamboo, as well as niu, coconut, is one of the most useful and practical plants for humankind, providing water storage, food, raw materials for household and garden use, musical instruments and more.

`Ohe is said to be one of the "canoe plants" brought to Hawai`i Nei by early Polynesian settlers in their oceanic navigation. This plant may have originated in India or Java.

There are two types of `Ohe or "Hawaiian Bamboo". One is Schizostachyum glaucifolium and the other is a green Bambusa vulgaris. Both are clumping bamboos.

(1) Bambusa vulgaris, the most familiar, was the larger of the two and is a timber bamboo that grows to 50 ft. and larger. B. vulgaris has the special property of not going into flower en mass but rather individual clumps flower and die. Early Polynesian settlers likely were well aware of this and as they had been used for water containers they were probably also aware of being able to start culm sections growing - especially if they were filling them with water and keeping them in shade. B. vulgaris has thick culm walls highly prized by the Powder Post Beetle, and it will often attack it immediately after the harvest while it is still green. It is not known to set seed and is easily propagated by culm starts and rhizome sections.

(2) Schizostachyum glaucifolium - (3 in. x 40 ft.) another clumper, although smaller, is reported to set viable seed every 30 years or so. When you see a wild grove of this bamboo it appears to be a runner, as it has reseeded itself in such a way that it looks as if it has spread by running. S. glaucifolium is a very unusual bamboo having extremely thin walls, and long internodes. The culms are straight and besides water containers it has been used for a variety of musical instruments including nose flutes and stamping drums, to name a few. It is lightweight and strong, as stamping drums take a pounding. It can be started from culm starts so perhaps this was the method of propagation, but seed may have been available also. It, too, is susceptible to Powder Post Beetle attack. Most probably neither of these two early bamboo were used for home construction due to the beetle problem.

Most bamboo flower, but only once in 60-120 years, with large heads much like those of sugar cane. After blooming, all of the bamboo plants of the same species die back. This happens worldwide at the same time! Quite a remarkable feat, right in there with the similar global songs of the Humpback whales. Overall, there are more than 1000 kinds of bamboo, all of them relatives of the sugar cane and of corn.

This vigorous and fertile plant flourishes in warm moist forests. Growing to more than 50 feet high, some bamboo can reach 100 feet in height, growing up to 18 inches a day. The stems have hollow walls with internodes, thick hard nodes joining them. The beauty and purity of line is very pleasing to see.

Bamboo grows in clumps of culms called sympodial, the term for tropical bamboo that grows directly from the parent, where the culm and rhizome are one. Other kinds of bamboo have a single free-standing culm and are called monopodial, which means they grow out of a rhizome that travels fast and far underground.

Valuable in the control of soil erosion, bamboo can be propagated from young rhizomes or from cuttings. The plant needs rich moist soil, full sun and nitrogen.

The leaves of `ohe are long, flat, thin and pointed, with rough undersides that can cut. They are different lengths, depending upon the variety, the largest being about 14 inches long by 2 inches wide. Most varieties shed their leaves yearly, growing new ones that appear immediately.

Bamboo wood has silica in its cell walls and is hard, straight, strong, flexible, light and easily split.

The Japanese name for bamboo is take, while the Chinese call it chu.

Upon Maui's Haleakala's slopes above Keanae in an area called Waikamoi, it is said that the Polynesian goddess Hina planted a grove of `ohe brought from Tahiti.

Bamboo's usefulness takes many forms. People of ancient Hawai`i used `ohe to kindle fires, blowing air through hollow tubes onto the embers. This tool was called `ohe puhi ahi.

To irrigate their crops, kanaka would cut the `ohe in half lengthwise, then cut out the middle of the node walls, allowing water to flow down these irrigation troughs from the stream into the different levels of the taro pond fields.

A traditional knife for cutting the umbilical cord of a newborn was fashioned of bamboo, as were skewers to string kukui nuts for candles, lama or kali kukui.

In the tapa cloth-making process, women used lapa, bamboo sticks, to apply dye. Also, `ohe sticks were cut out to create designs that were then stamped with dye into intricate geometric patterns on the kapa. The stamps of bamboo were called `ohe kapala.

The `ohe stem is a valuable plant for hula accompaniment. A three-holed nose flute, `ohe hano ihu, is made from the hollow stem of the thin-walled bamboo, as well as percussion instruments, including the pu`ili, fringed split bamboo tubes about two feet long that rattle when hit. Other sounds can emanate from the `ohe ka `eke`eke, tubes of the thick-walled bamboo, with closed nodes on the bottom end. These are alternately struck on the ground to make tones. Another instrument using bamboo is the `ohe kani, somewhat like a Jew's harp.

Lengths of `ohe with closed ends can be used as a water carrier. Surely, these vessels of water would have been invaluable on ocean voyages. Along with the gourd, ipu, the need for water vessels was well met. Other uses for the bamboo stems are for building, posts, bridges, vessels, gutters, floats, hives, canes, flutes, masts, furniture, utensils, agricultural tools, ladders, ornaments, toys and fishing poles. If the bamboo is dried correctly, the esthetic smooth beauty of bamboo stalks can be maintained for years. Otherwise, rot and mildew can occur.

Split bamboo can be made into mats, hats, screens, baskets, fans, umbrellas, brushes, paper, ropes, roofing tiles, wall mats, or as a part of the sleds of old Hawai`i, called holua.

As food, the young shoots are eaten, as are seeds of some varieties.

`Ohe is said to be the kinolau, body form, of the Polynesian creator god Kane, along with kalo/taro and ko/sugar cane.

`OHI`A `AI

Have you ever come across a dazzling hot-pink carpet of hairy filaments upon the earth in the springtime? Looking up, you will probably see the parent tree, branches bursting full of cerise tufted blossoms. This is `ohi`a `ai. Its stamens are being released. It's spring...usually March-April in Hawai`i.

Queen Liliu`okalani wrote in a letter to a friend in 1901 that..."for it to rain while the sun shines, the old wise ones say that these showers are for strewing the petals of our mountain apples, preparation to the coming of the fruit — then another shower and the ripening of it. It is very poetical to us — the idea is continuity of life."

As summer arrives, we can look forward to the fruit of the `ohi`a `ai. Late summer and early autumn is the time to gather the apples. Be sure to take along a long-handled fruit picker, because these offerings are usually high up and beyond easy reach.

A member of the myrtle family, Eugenia malaccensis grows in groves or alone in protected shady valleys where there is plentiful rainfall. The trees are found in humid areas, at altitudes of up to 1800 feet on the windward mountainsides of the islands. The tree may be as tall as 50 feet or only a small shrub. It is said to have originated in India and Malaysia, which accounts for the fruit sometimes being called Malay apple. This plant grows well on many Pacific islands and is another of the plants whose seed were brought to Hawai`i by early Polynesian settlers.

`Ohi`a `ai is a relative of the yellow rose apple and the crimson flowered `Ohi`a `lehua. The blossoms all secrete sweet nectars that attract birds and insects. `Ohi`a `ai is also related to guava, eucalyptus, Java plum, Surinam cherry and allspice. In Malaysia and India, the rose apple represents the golden fruit of immortality and is associated with the Buddha. In Hawai`i, the red `ohi`a `lehua is associated with the goddess of the volcano and fire, Pele, about whom many songs and legends abound. It is also treated in reverence to Ku and Kane. This plant is considered the kinolau of Ku. In Tahiti, the `ohi`a `ai is called ahia and was traditionally for sacred temple use. The `ohi`a `ai was perhaps one of the few fruit of the people of Hawai`i before others were introduced by Europeans and other later settlers.

The trunk of the mountain apple tree was used by the people of old to build beams for their hale, house. The tree has gray, smooth, spotted bark. The bark is traditionally used for medicine. The leaves are dark green, smooth and shiny, thick and oval and are paired. The youngest leaves are usually tinged with red. They are also used for medicine. It is said that young leaves from saplings and the bark from mature trees are made into a warm drink for the mother of a newborn baby. This is to assist in expelling the afterbirth and to cleanse the mother's body after giving birth or even after a miscarriage. Remedies using pounded bark have been placed in the mouth for lesions and also for lacerations. The leaves can be processed for a tonic, and the old fruit of this plant was considered a helpful remedy for sore throats.

A reddish brown dye for making patterns on tapa bark cloth was processed from the bark and the root of `ohi`a `ai.

The cerise colored flower blossoms are shaped like a star-burst of bright filaments, growing on short stems on the tree's trunk and main branches. There is also a variety of mountain apple that has white blossoms and fruit.

After 7 to 8 years, the tree begins to bear fruit, usually in June. The waxy fruit are thin-skinned, delicate, crimson-red with splotches of pink and white. They hang all along the branches and trunk, rather than at the ends of twigs, like some other fruit. They are 2 to 3 inches long, oval and slightly block-shaped. The fruit pulp is crisp, white, sweet, juicy and refreshing. The delicate taste is not very distinctive, somewhat like a pear. Inside are 1 or 2 large round brown seeds. We can grow backyard trees from these seeds, watering them well and looking ahead seven years to maturity and the tree's fruit bearing.

Usually, the fruit is eaten raw, but sometimes it is dried and eaten later. It is also made into preserves and pickles. Fresh is best!

O Hinaia`ele`ele ka malama, `aluka ka pala a ka `ohi`a. Hinaia`ele`ele is the month when the mountain apples ripen everywhere.

`OLENA

This humble little root, about the size of an adult thumb, was probably one of the two dozen or so plants brought to Hawai`i by early Polynesian settlers in their voyaging canoes. `Olena's scientific botanical name is Curcuma domestica. It is best known throughout the world as Turmeric, and is a member of the ginger family.

`Olena is rarely found in Hawai`i today. It grows in cultivation and in the wild in moist forested valleys, up to altitudes of 3000 feet, preferring shade, yet able to tolerate heat.

The `olena is without a stem, yet the overlapping clustered leaves appear to be growing out of a stem above ground. The leaves are blade-like, 8 inches long by 3 inches wide, and rise to about 20 inches high, directly from the underground root. This root/rhizome grows its leaves much as the banana does.

It is `olena's rhizome which is precious. In tropical India, turmeric is widely cultivated as a dye and as a spice, being the yellow color we associate with curry powder, which is actually a mixture of spices that includes turmeric. The root is thick and orange or yellow-colored on the inside. It is this bright color that is characteristic of turmeric, the cooking spice. In the language of Hawai`i, `olena means yellow. Dyes from these roots were used to color tapa cloth. Young roots were steamed to provide a light yellow dye and the steamed older mature roots provided a golden or a deep orange dye. The juice of crushed raw roots produces stain also.

Traditionally, this root can be used medicinally. The roots are pounded and pressed to extract a juice that, when mixed with water, is helpful in earaches and to clear the sinuses through nasal application. The astringent qualities of `olena are also useful in cases of consumption, tuberculosis, bronchitis, colds and asthma, the root being lightly cooked and then eaten. Its use enhances the immune system by purifying the blood. At times `olena has been taken as a diuretic, and topically it can be helpful with pimples or to stop bleeding.

Ceremonially, the traditional use for `olena is as a purifier, containing much mana, spiritual power. Pieces of the crushed root mixed with sea water are sprinkled to remove negative influences from places, persons and things. Typically, when someone is ill, or when a home or other place is to be newly occupied and needing blessing, a ceremony is held. To sprinkle, a ti leaf is dipped into a calabash or bowl containing the `olena and sea water. The sprinkling is accompanied by prayers.

If you wish to cultivate `olena in your garden, remember that this plant likes rich soil, some shade and plenty of water. After the rhizomes are planted, `olena hides in the garden for three or more months. In addition, this plant is usually dormant from about September to March, but the roots do survive and will revive to come up with green leaves once again. When they do, they will later show flowers on a stem developing from the center of the leaf stalks, called petioles. The cylindrical flower cluster is about 5 inches long. The pale yellow and white flowers grow on the lower pale green bract, while the upper pinkish part of the bract grows no flowers.

OLONA

In a society without nails or man-made fibers, olona fibers were a true blessing to the life of the people.

One of the plants thought by some to have been brought to Hawai`i long ago by voyaging Polynesian settlers, olona is found only in these Hawai`i islands, especially in windward Maui and in east Moloka`i. There are other researchers who believe olona to be an endemic plant rather than an introduced one.

The scientific name of this fiber plant is Touchardia latifolia. Although it is not common today, this stout-stemmed rainforest shrub of the nettle family can still be found in the gullies of lower elevation forests, near the 2,000 foot level, or in very wet boggy interior valleys near streams.

With 4 to 8 foot tall stems in the wild, the bark of olona slips off easily, revealing the inner bark or bast, which is made up of fine quality fibers that are durable and said to be many times stronger than hemp fiber. When young, the outer bark is green, turning brown as the plant ages.

The large dark green serrated ovate leaves are 9 to 16 inches long with broad bases, 5 to 9 inches wide. The leaves have netted veins that are more prominent on the underside, due to their reddish-brown color.

Olona has multiple flowers that turn to clustered flesh-orange colored fruit at the ends of the branches. These resemble the "mulberry" of Mamaki, a close relative.

Propagation is from rooted stem cuttings, root shoots and occasionally from seeds, all of which were thickly planted in previously cleared areas. Although seldom cultivated these days, in ancient Hawai`i olona was widely cultivated in very wet interior valleys upland.

Some olona plantation patches were as large as two to three acres. The cuttings were planted close together to encourage straight unbranched stems. The few branches that did grow were removed regularly. In a year's time the plants were mature enough to harvest. They were 6 to 10 feet tall, and the bark could be easily stripped at this young age.

Temporary crude shelters for hanging the drying strips of olona were built near the olona patch. The leaves were removed, and the stems cut at soil level, so shoots would regrow. The stems (with a few leaf nodes) which were taken were ripped into strips, usually 6 feet long and 1 to 2 inches wide. The outer bark was carefully stripped off with opihi/limpet shells, usually over hardwood boards or large flat stones. The strips were then rolled inside out, and soaked for a few short days in a shallow place in a nearby stream. The next step was to scrape off the remaining pulp with seashell or turtle shell scrapers. The strips were then hung to dry in the shed. At the same time workers were separating the clean strong fibers into various widths, and bundling them into rolls for the return to the village. There they were bleached in the sunlight and later twisted by the village women into fine cordage of varying thicknesses.

The white cordage was highly valued for its light weight and its exceeding great strength under duress.

After Captain Cook's arrival, later traders prized and purchased olona cordage for ships' rigging and for whalers' harpoon lines. Word reached Europe of the superior qualities of Hawai`i's olona cordage, such as it does not kink nor stretch, and Swiss climbers began to import it for their use in the mountains of the Alps.

The pliable whitish cordage and twine from olona remains soft and resists breaking down from exposure to sea water, so here in Hawai`i Nei it was the main fiber used for aho, fishing line, where the no-kink and no-stretch factors were also useful. Fishnets with large mesh, upena, as well as finer fishnets, and net bags for carrying containers, koko, were also crafted from olona fiber. To prolong its life, it was often treated with kukui oil.

Carefully crafted olona fibers made up the net base that provided backing for the exceptionally fine feather cloaks, ahu`ula, as well as for some of the feather helmets, mahiole, and for ti leaf capes, ahu la`i. Kahili feather standard were wound with olona cord. Olona cordage was superior for tying adz heads to hau wood handles.

Other uses for olona in ancient Hawai`i were as threads for stitching together tapa bark cloth, into garments, for stringing and wrapping all manner of lei, to tie off the umbilical cord after a birth, for canoe lines and for every possible purpose that we today might use rope, twine, string or thread.

PIA

Originating most likely in Southeast Asia, the Polynesian arrowroot plant migrated to Hawai`i Nei in the canoes of early Polynesian settlers. Pia grows throughout tropical Asia and Polynesia, as well as in Australia and Africa.

Pia is best known for its fine nutritious starch, which is extracted from the round tuber, the underground root. Tacca leontopetaloides is Pia's scientific name. Pia is sometimes called tapioca root, but is not to be confused with Manihot esculenta, which is Manioc Cassava - also called tapioca, for its edible starch. Sometimes pia is also confused with Maranta arundinacea, called arrowroot for its arrow-shaped, starchy edible root.

The tuber/hua of pia is white and nearly round. The highly starchy carbohydrate was traditionally grated or pounded and put into a calabash with water, where the starch settled to the bottom.

Each day, the water was poured off and fresh water was added. This was done to release the bitterness of the root. When the bitterness was gone, the starch was spread on flat rocks to dry in the sun.

Later, the sheet of starch was scraped off and ground into a powder using a stone mortar and pestle. Starch that was not immediately needed was stored, often in the shape of small cakes.

Traditionally, prepared pia is mixed with coconut milk or cream and steamed, boiled or baked into the dessert pudding called haupia.

Medicinally, the raw dry starch was added to water and taken several times a day to cure diarrhea. For severe cases, such as dysentery, the pia was mixed with alae, red clay, to provide iron for rehabilitation, being careful to know the right quantities to ingest so as not to cause constipation. This combination was also used to stop internal hemorrhaging in the stomach and colon.

Pia can also be useful in the household, as a laundry starch, to stiffen fabrics.

Polynesian arrowroot grows in moist, open woods at low altitudes, in warm and shady places. It was once widely cultivated, usually alongside lo`i kalo (taro ponds), as well as in village gardens. Nowadays, it is rare and isolated, usually found near streams in the wild or in an occasional garden, where it is often grown as an ornamental plant.

To propagate pia, plant the tuber in a hole, near the end of the rainy season. The best time to harvest the tubers is when the leaves are dry and yellowing. Pia's leaves die in winter, while the underground tubers remain dormant until springtime. In the spring, the slender, finely grooved leafstalks are sent up 1 to 3 feet high, with broad leaves, similar in appearance to papaya leaves - divided, with many lobes. These are 1 to 2 feet wide.

The leaf upper surface has depressed veins, and the under surface is shiny with bold yellow veins. Near the end of the annual above-ground growing season, numerous small green and purple flowers appear at the top of pia's flower stalks. These are accompanied by leafy bracts and by thready green and purplish bracelets that are 4 to 9 inches long.

If growing an old-fashioned Hawai`i garden is a consideration for your family, pia is one of the plants you may wish to include.

`UALA

`Uala - here's a plant that grows easily, is a valuable high-yield food and tastes delicious. This member of the morning glory family is thought to be of tropical South American origin, and was brought to Hawai`i by early Polynesian settlers as an important staple in their diet. There are many varieties of Ipomoea batatas, most maturing in 3-7 months from time of planting.

The people of ancient Hawai`i grew about 200 varieties of `uala. Now there are only a few. In old Hawai`i, the cultivation of `uala was one of the few agricultural ventures shared by both men and women. `Uala is planted in mounds, ridges or flat ground, from sea level to 5,000 feet elevation. These plants will grow in areas of poor soil with limited rainfall, but thrive in loamy soil, producing larger tubers where the soil is loose and more porous. They are a drought-resistant vegetable, enjoying plenty of sunshine. One hundred well-tended plants produce about 150 pounds of tubers.

This sweet potato is a vigorous plant that spreads its dark green heart-shaped or five-lobed leaves closely to the ground. The large tuberous roots range in color from purple to white or orange. The flowers are pinky-lavender and tubular, resembling small morning glories.

The season of planting varies with the variety and locale. In a dry locality, after the early winter rains begin is considered the best planting time. In wet areas, it is best to plant after a wintertime of rain is passing. A slightly acid soil is preferred.

Propagation is from stem cuttings or slips, not from the tubers. the 6-9 inch slips are planted about a foot apart, preferably in mounds, pu`e, or ridges, allowing the vines to trail off outside the beds. It is a good idea to plant `uala near the periphery of a garden, as the plants tend to take over the area in which they grow, and to wander on and on. The vines make a lovely ground cover in any event.

In planting, the older vines are used, with the cuttings being vine ends broken off from 10-20 inches from the tip. Gather these in the evening, not in the heat of the day. Pluck all leaves off except for three or four at the end, being careful to leave the leaf bud at the tip. Planting can be the next day, or even several days later, if the slips are kept moist, such as in a bucket of water. Root buds may begin to appear during this time.

The leaves may be steamed, boiled or baked. The tuber is a carbohydrate. A good source of Vitamin A, calcium and phosphorus, most of the nutrients are near the skin. Therefore, it is nutritionally best to steam or bake the potatoes in their scrubbed skins in an oven or in an imu, rather than to boil them. If mixed with water, the cooked, skinned and mashed `uala makes a sweet potato poi. The tubers and greens are also used as food for livestock, especially pigs.

In addition to providing food, some varieties in ancient days were used medicinally. `Uala was used as a tonic during pregnancy and to induce lactation. Other varieties were said to cure asthma. `Uala was also used as a laxative, and could be prepared as a gargle for sore throat and to reduce phlegm. Raw `uala mixed with ti stem was used when it was necessary to induce vomiting. One variety was used as fish bait, while old vines and leaves of `uala were placed beneath floor mats as padding.

When harvesting the `uala, dig carefully so as not to injure the potato. The tubers should be dried and cured in a protected place for a week after they are dug up. During this process, the carbohydrates turn towards sugar, sweetening the flavor of the potato.

Kamapua`a is said to be the god of the sweet potato. This god has a pig-like snout, making it possible for him to root up the tubers. Happy growing, harvesting and eating of the `uala to you, even though unlike Kamapua`a, you use a trowel or shovel.