For many years, the landscape industry has encouraged us to include Hawaiian native or heritage plants in our gardens. This helps keep these sometimes threatened species vibrant. Native plants are also well-adapted to our climate. They have managed to thrive for centuries here and are accustomed to life in these islands. Hawaiian heritage plants arrived thousands of years ago with the early Polynesian settlers. They too are very well-adapted to our Hawaiian climate and weather changes.
For many years, the landscape industry has encouraged us to include Hawaiian native or heritage plants in our gardens. This helps keep these sometimes threatened species vibrant. Native plants are also well-adapted to our climate. They have managed to thrive for centuries here and are accustomed to life in these islands. Hawaiian heritage plants arrived thousands of years ago with the early Polynesian settlers. They too are very well-adapted to our Hawaiian climate and weather changes.
Encouragement to grow edible plants is growing for numerous reasons. Nurseries are adding fruit trees and herb and vegetable starts to their offerings. Many of us plant these edibles in our landscape as ornamentals. If you are interested in both planting native plants and growing edibles, you can. Among the choices are plants that are attractive and produce tasty food.
Fruit trees, including banana, breadfruit, coconut and mountain apple, can add a tropical look to your garden and provide delicious fruit. Though some believe the coconut may have arrived on its own in Hawaii, it is unlikely coconuts could actually survive on the sea long enough to get here and grow. Polynesian settlers certainly brought coconuts and bananas to Hawaii. Coconut trees are obviously a defining tropical element in a landscape. A single coconut tree can keep you well supplied with fruit that contains healthful juice and meat that adds flavor to numerous drinks and dishes. Bananas are easy to grow and will produce fruit quickly. Once they produce a stalk, the tree is cut down and new ones come up from the corm, keeping your banana supply constant.
Polynesians also brought the mountain apple and breadfruit. Both can become attractive, large trees to provide shade and yummy ingredients for a variety of dishes. The Sept. 29 Breadfruit and Banana Festival at Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden will offer an opportunity to taste a variety of dishes made from these two Hawaiian heritage fruits and learn more about growing the plants.
For those with smaller yards, consider plants like taro or sugar cane that take up less space. Taro was a staple food in the Polynesian diet. The leaves become a soft, delicious green when steamed for a long time and the roots provided a basis for many dishes when boiled or steamed. Both Native Hawaiians and kamaaina enjoy poi today with fish or pork dishes. You can also find many newer recipes for taro leaves and root.
Sugar cane was brought here by Polynesians for several reasons. First, it was a sweet treat. They also cut and chewed the stalks to clean their teeth and used the sweet flavor of the cane to reduce the bitter flavor of medicinal herbs. Though some of the 50 varieties of cane brought by the Polynesians have been lost or have crossed with those introduced by the sugar industry, many have been revived today and the different flavors, colors, sizes and shapes can again be enjoyed.
If you only have a small space or room for a container, you might want to grow Hawaiian sweet potatoes or yams. Both grow low to the ground and produce tasty tubers. Sweet potatoes were second only to taro in the Polynesian diet for providing carbohydrates and minerals. Hawaiians cultivated numerous varieties of sweet potatoes with cream, yellow or orange flesh and larger green leaves. The purple Okinawan variety was a later introduction that has attractive purple leaf backs. All can be prolific producers that can be grown easily from cuttings. Both sweet potatoes and yams can grow in marginal soil and tolerate long dry periods. Both are delicious baked, steamed or made into poi.
Growing Hawaiian heritage plants that are edible offers an opportunity to add attractive plants, as well as delicious food to your garden. Look for plants and get your edible Hawaiian garden going today.
Tropical
gardening hrlpline
Clear asks: Your column on papayas and bananas brought up a question for me. I am an organic farmer and you wrote that transgenic pollen travels and advised us to test our plants to see if they are GMO. How do I do this?
Answer: It is true pollen can travel long distances on the wind. If you grow organic papayas you definitely want to test them to see if they are genetically modified. If they are, you should inform your buyers so they can choose to accept them or not.
If pollen from genetically modified papayas pollinates your trees, your plant and the fruit it produces will not be genetically modified, but some of the seeds in the fruit may be. The trees and fruit that grow from those seeds will be genetically modified.
The University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources office in Kainaliu can send samples to UH-Manoa for testing. The charge for having a single sample tested is $3. The fee drops to $2 per sample for 25 or more samples sent in at once.
Currently, this is the only local lab offering this test. Another lab in Iowa is listed on the Internet if you want to check out its service at genetic-id.com.
The local lab asks that you collect young leaves from the top of your tree to be tested. Choose an immature leaf from the apex of the plant. It will be yellow-green and somewhat transparent and about 1 to 1.5 inches long with a stalk that is less than 2 inches.
Put the collected leaf in a Ziploc bag and mark it with a name or number for that tree.
Use a separate bag for each tree sample. Samples must have names or numbers on them to be accepted.
Call the local CTAHR office at 322-4892 to get full instructions and the best days to collect and bring in your samples.
Email plant questions to konamg@ctahr.hawaii.edu for answers by certified master gardeners. Some questions will be chosen for inclusion in this column.
Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant with an organic farm in Captain Cook.