Canoe Plants of Hawaii

Even those who have never been to Hawaii have a pretty good idea of what a tropical paradise looks like.  Palm trees, lush jungles, lots of singing birds, flowers everywhere and a lush undisturbed greenness only provided by warm temperatures, abundant rainfall and plenty of sunshine. This generalization holds true for the most part on the windward sides of the islands, but there are some caveats that need considering. 

ISLAND PLANTS — A great many of the plants we see on Hawaii today, including these coconut palms, were introduced by people who first visited these tropical islands. (Image courtesy Gerald Klingaman)

The undisturbed part of the picture is pure hokum.  Hawaii is a tropical paradise but it has the most riled ecosystem in the United States. It is estimated that over 75 percent of the species that have gone extinct since the Environmental Protection Agency started counting in the 1980s have occurred in Hawaii.  And, most of the plants we recognize as the fabric of this tropical paradise were brought here by humans. 

Coconut palms, with their Tina Turner trunks and topknot of leaves, are not native to Hawaii.  They were amongst the two dozen or so “canoe plants” that the early Polynesian explorers brought with them when they discovered this cluster of islands in the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean.  Accounts differ about when the Hawaiian Islands were first colonized, but most believe seafarers from the Marquesa Islands — south and a bit east of Hawaii and about 2,000 miles distant — arrived around 800 years ago. 

With them in their hand-hewn dugout canoes they brought everything they needed to survive a long sea voyage and establish a home on a new island.  The concept of traveling into the unknown ocean in search of a spit of land to call your own is a remarkable example of courage, ingenuity and close kinship with the natural world that – if not completely lost – is in short supply today.  

The plants they brought included everything a seafaring population needed to feed, clothe and care for themselves. Clay pottery – because these volcanic islands are so young and have not had sufficient time for soil to break down into deposits of fine clays – was never a part of Hawaiian culture.  For cooking and serving purposes gourds, coconut sells and leaves of banana and ti, the Cordyline plant, were used. 

Taro, known as Kalo to the Hawaiians or Elephant ears when we see the large tubers sold in garden stores for bold foliage displays, was the staple food for early Hawaiians and is still widely eaten in traditional Hawaiian homes.  Poi, a starchy white gruel one non-native described as tasting like wallpaper paste, is made by steaming taro tubers until tender and then pounding them with water to achieve a thick paste. If served fresh it can taste pretty starchy but most Hawaiians set it aside for a day or two to begin fermenting, thus giving it a tangy, somewhat nutty taste. 

Poi is said to be the perfect accompaniment for roast pork since pigs, chickens and dogs were the livestock the early travelers brought with them, but they also had the starchy breadfruit, three kinds of tropical yams, bananas, and sweet potato. The presence of sweet potato is interesting because it is believed to be native to Central America, indicating early contact and trade with South America well before the time of European exploration. 

For textiles, the early travelers brought paper mulberry — Broussonetia papyrifera — the inner bark of which is used to weave a coarse fabric. This plant probably found its way into Polynesian hands via trade from southern Asia during ancient times. Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia has a planting of paper mulberry on the town square, an early attempt to use it in Britain’s colonies to make paper.   

Hibiscus tiliaceus, a plant the native Hawaiians call hau, is also used as a cordage plant and as a source for lightweight fishnet floats. The sails for their outrigger canoes, floor mats and even roof thatching were made from the long, broad sword-shaped leaves of screw pine — Pandanus tectoris — which is native to most of the Polynesian islands, including Hawaii. 

One of the things that always surprises me when I visit Hawaii is to see all the chickens wandering around on the streets, in the parking lots and about anywhere you look. These birds, some of them having a near-wild look about them, made themselves at home in the tropical paradise that was pretty much devoid of predators when they first arrived. As new people showed up and predators arrived with them — cats, for example — the chickens learned and adapted. They still survive and seemingly thrive alongside all the changes that the island’s biotic life has witnessed over the last millennium.