[ Natural History ] [ Arts & Culture ]
[ Braddah-Nics ] [ Local Grinds ] [ Spotlight On ]

Natural History

Banyan
(Ficus spp.)

A member of the myrtle family, the banyan is native from Sri Lanka to Micronesia. It is a European introduction to Hawaii and Tahiti where it was first recorded in the late 1800's and early 1900's. (It was not until 1939 that the wasp necessary for pollination was introduced into Hawaii.) According to one gardener, the banyan was named after Hindu traders to whom the tree was sacred.

The plant starts out as a shrub that eventually grows into a large tree. Often the tree has multiple 'trunks" as its hanging aerial roots reach the ground and form pillars. The most famous banyan on Maui is the old Lahaina Banyan, which, all by itself, forms a canopy for a park that is a landmark visitor attraction. The multiple trunks are actually tree aerial roots hanging down from tree limbs. Once they touch ground and root, they become pillars. The tree has 16 major "trunks" and scores of horizontally stretching branches reaching across the park.

The banyan tree was planted in 1873 by Lahaina Sheriff W. O. Smith during a celebration to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Protestant missionary work in Hawaii. Community efforts to care for the tree have helped to create its symmetrical shape. It is said that Japanese gardeners would hang large, water-filled pickle jars under the aerial roots that they wanted to grow as trunks. As the roots grew down, the ropes holding the jars were lengthened. Other aerial roots were trimmed off, with the goal of keeping the tree symmetrical.

One hundred years after the first commemoration, in 1973, another ceremony was held and over 500 people could be accommodated under this tree. Today the tree is more than 60 feet high and some two-thirds of an acre in area. It is the largest banyan tree in the United States.

Banyan trees do become huge. In Calcutta, there was a banyan that was 85 feet high and 938 feet in circumference. Others have spread to as much as 2,000 feet around.

The thick stems of the banyan have tips which are encased within a sheath-like cap. They have a milky sap as well as leathery thick leaves. Like its cousins, the breadfruit and the mulberry, the banyan belongs to the fig family. The edible fruits do look like a miniature wild figs and they contain many tiny seeds.

Birds are fond of the fruit and have helped to spread the tree. While the plant's use as an ornamental in Hawaii is limited because of its eventual size, it has naturalized in disturbed lowland areas like secondary forests, and shrub lands as well as in cracks in walls and sidewalks. Seedling trees can be spotted growing on old fence posts. If left undisturbed these grow big enough to engulf the post.
 

[ Top ]

Arts & Culture

Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve

In 1973 the State Board of Land and Natural Resources established the "Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve," starting about two-and-a-half miles south of Makena Beach. The Reserve includes all of the submerged and emerged lands as well as in-shore ponded and subterannean waters of Cape Kinau and includes parts of the adjoining Ahihi and La Perouse bays. There are 2,000 acres of jagged lava, small kipukas (pockets of green growth surrounded by the barren lava), shoreline pebble beaches with coral bits, and crystal-clear offshore waters. 

The State Legislature created the system of Natural Area Reserves throughout the State to protect "unique natural resources...many of which occur nowhere else in the world, that are highly vulnerable to loss by the growth of population and technology." Geographically it includes Cape Kinau and the adjacent portions of Ahihi Bay to the north as well as La Perouse Bay to the south. 

No hunting, fishing, or removal of coral, lava, shells, plants, or other collecting is permitted in the area, which is meant to "preserve in perpetuity endangered species, important geological sites, and specific land and water areas which support native flora and fauna in their natural communities."

As you enter the Reserve, the road crosses a field of clinkery a'a lava that looks like the surface of the moon. It is easy to see the black river of basalt up the green flanks of the mountain toward its source, a split cinder cone below the mountain's southwest rift zone. This black congealed mass of a'a lava came from the unexpected 1790 Paea Flow, the last eruption on Maui. 

Scientists tell us that the flow was an isolated pocket of lava trapped underground after its source had dried up. Hawaiians say the goddess Pele sent the lava to destroy Paea, a young man who had spurned her affections. Whatever. The eruption formed the massive Cape Kinau south of Ahihi Bay and has left the entire coastline rocky and barren.

 Within the reserve are rocky and forested lands, Hawaiian village sites, ancient fishponds, coastal lava tubes and tide pools, and three tidal brackish water ponds. These anchialine ponds, which are located within the Cape's lava flows, are unique to Hawaii. Although they are situated where one might expect to find fresh water, the pools are actually fed by tides through narrow subsurface channels and the water is brackish. The ponds support native sedge and several species of shrimps unique to Hawaii. Occasionally, birds that are seldom seen any more drop in for a visit.

A State of Hawaii Dept. of Land and Natural Resources wooden sign announces the start of the Reserve area ("Taking or disturbing any natural materials [plant, animal or mineral] from reserve land or water is prohibited"). From the sign a trail leads into the reserve where raised sections of an ancient trail are still visible.

The stony traces of coastal Hawaiian village sites on Cape Kinau are also still visible. The old sites are marked by walled and terraced platforms. The explorer La Perouse found the villagers to be kind and polite when he visited in 1786, according to his journal jottings. He stayed for a short time before proceeding on his voyage of exploration.

As the Reserve legislation says, "these unique natural assets should be protected and preserved for present and future generations of man to provide viable illustrations of an original natural heritage, to act as base lines against which changes made in environments of Hawaii can be measured." What a good idea!

[ Top ]

Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: Please return them when you're done.
BRADDAH-NICS: Bring 'em back when you pau, eh?

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: He's rich.
BRADDAH-NICS: Plenny money he get!

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: He is very funny.
BRADDAH-NICS: Ho...he really crack me up!


 

[ Top ]

Local Grinds

Papaya Seed Dressing


Ingredients:

Procedure:

Peel and remove seeds from papaya. Finely chop shallot.
Place papaya in a blender and puree. When read, add other ingredients and
continue to blend until smooth and creamy. Makes approximately enough for eight salads.

[ Top ]

Spotlight On…

Wailea

Just south of Kihei, Wailea stands as a spacious, meticulously laid out resort, built in the early 70's by A & B (Alexander and Baldwin). There are five separate beaches along a mile and a half of shore with views of Lanai, Kahoolawe and Molokini. Winter whale-watching, good from vantage points down the length of the leeward shore, are exceptional off the Wailea beaches, where, sometimes, whales play just 100 yards from the shore.

The artfully designed hotels, condominiums, and exclusive residential communities set amid well-planned streets, a couple of world-class golf courses, a tennis club and a shopping center have been joined by newer and more densely clustered low-rise condo villas, but there is still the feeling of green, manicured lushness.

[ Top ]