Natural History

Morning Glory
(Ipomoea spp.)

The morning glory family includes about 500 species spread throughout the tropics of the world. Mostly native to tropical America, the plants have been introduced throughout the tropical world and in several places have become wild. Hawaii's 14 species are native or naturalized and five more can be found testing the fences of people's homes. The plants may occur from near sea level and on up into dry areas up to about 2,000 or more feet. Most of this climbing species are short-lived and must be regrown from seed after a year or so.

One of the most popular morning glories, Ipomoea indica, was called koali 'awa by the Hawaiians. It is a tough perennial vine with many-branched stems, often more than 25 feet long, that twine up and over shrubs and small trees. It can form a dense carpet with its 3 to 4 inch long, heart-shaped leaves. The delicate blue to purple (or more rarely white) funnel-shape flowers are 2 to 3 inches long and 2 to 3 inches wide at the tip. The fruits are small, brown, spherical to flattened capsules.

This common pan-tropical morning glory vine prefers relatively dry, disturbed habitats, exposed to strong, intermittent sunshine. It is so common in Hawaii (and relatively rare in the rest of Polynesia) that some experts speculate it is indigenous. It is said that the koali 'awa vines were used to make swings tied in trees as part of a courting game. The seat was made with a sturdy branch and tied to the end of a single vine to make a swing for two people. The boy would sit on the seat and the girl sit on his legs. Another piece of vine was tied to the seat and pulled by a third person to keep the swing in motion. (Evidently the swingers didn't "pump" as we do today.) To make the ride even more exciting, more pieces of vine could be tied on either side of the seat for two other companions to pull.

Prior to 1871, Chinese immigrants brought the edible morning glory (I. aquatica) known to Asian cooks as the ung-choi and it has naturalized around Hawaiian streams and ponds. The 'uaula, sweet potato (I. batata) is another morning glory used as food. So is the koali 'ai
(I. cairica), an ivy-leaved morning glory with leaves that have five to seven lobes (instead of the more typical heart-shaped leaves) and which grows wild in the Nahiku-Hana area. The koali 'ai has "roots that can be used as food," it says here.

The koali 'ai was one of the three plants used in lei to honor the engineers and workers who constructed the irrigation ditches that watered the terraces for growing wetland taro. (Banana leaves and the leaves of the neke fern which commonly grew among the terraces were also used in these lei.)

Other fairly common morning glories include the pale mauve-flowered I. pulchella and the wine-red I. horsefalliae. The white-flowered I. alba is a native to Mexico and tends to grow on the margins of wetland areas in Hawaii.

One naturalized variety is pohuehue, I. pes-caprae, which is used on beaches everywhere as an effective sand-binder. The funnel-shaped mauve flowers seem delicate but the vine has sturdy running stems and leathery leaves that are tough. In times past, frustrated Hawaiian surfers would beat the water with vines from this plant in order to encourage the surf to rise.

The roots of many species of Ipomoea contain a resin composed of glucosides and other organic compounds with cathartic effects. The resin extracted from a Mexican species is appropriately known as "ipomoea resin" and has long been sold commercially as a cathartic.

The typical morning glory blooms when the sun first strikes it, but I. alba (sometimes listed as Calonyction aculeatum), the Moonflower, displays its huge white fragrant flowers only after dark and usually closes up by midmorning. Moonflowers were first recorded in Hawaii in 1819. It now occurs in moist areas from near sea-level to about the 1,200 foot elevation.

Hawaiians have used the bitter-tasting pounded stems and roots of the koali 'awa to relieve aches, pain and constipation. It does have a powerful cathartic effect. It is one of the best known medicinal plant in Hawaii where a potion from the crushed plant or scraped bark was taken alone or in combination with other herbs as a purgative. This treated was noted by early botanists as early as 1838 and it is likely that this use predated the European era. Various parts of the koali were crushed with salt and applied to fractures as a poultice, perhaps to act as a counterirritant, promoting healing by increasing blood flow to the affected area. A paste of the roots was sometimes used as a poultice to sooth backaches and sore muscles.

The Hawaiians mashed the vine of the pohuehue to bind sprains and the pounded roots were used as a cathartic. The roots and the leaves are said to have been used for food during famine times, but it would seem that the cathartic effects of these parts might have been problematic. Short lengths of the cut stems were used to slap the breasts of women who had just given birth to symbolically induce the flow of milk (perhaps mimicking the milky white sap). The tough, flexible stems were used for cordage and to weave fish nets and baskets.

During the hippie era the seeds of the blue-flowered morning glory (I. tricolor) became famous as a hallucinogenic. The seeds are highly toxic if ingested.

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Arts & Culture

Kaanapali Sugar Tales

As early as 1840, David Malo, one of the first great Hawaiian scholars to graduate from Lahainaluna, experimented with growing sugar cane in the Lahaina and Kaanapali area. Others joined him. When island laws were changed to allow non-native Hawaiians to lease land for as long as 50 years, and then (in 1850) to buy property on the same terms as native Hawaiians, the first sugar companies were formed.

Success was elusive at first, but the American Civil War created a new market. (Much of the sugar consumed in the North was cultivated in the South and this source was cut off during the Civil War.) In 1859, the islands exported 1.8 million pounds of sugar. Midway through the American hostilities, in 1864, the total was 10.4 million pounds. Twelve years later, Hawaii was entrenched as a supplier of sugar to the United States. A reciprocity treaty between the islands and the U.S., signed in 1876, allowed Hawaiian sugar to enter the U.S. duty-free and within ten years the total had increased to 171 million pounds.

In the mid-1800s, Henry Hackfield, a German immigrant, started a small waterfront store in Honolulu. As the fledgling sugar industry developed, Hackfield began providing labor and supplies to the new companies. He branched out into financing and ended up serving as sales agent and lobbyist for the sugar interests. All the while, he acquired land on Kauai and Maui.

As the monarchy ended (in 1893) and Hawaii was given territorial status five years later, Hackfield grew rich and powerful, with varied interests on all of the islands. He and several others controlled the sugar industry by the turn of the century, providing or obtaining the capital the planters need for their expansion and growth.

However, history swung the other way for Hackfield during World War One when German-owned businesses in the US had their assets seized by the federal government. Hackfield's interests were sold to a group of non-German businessmen. The business name was changed to the patriotic-sounding "American Factors." And the firm's retail clothing store, B. F. Ehlers, became "Liberty House."

Under the new management, a modern village grew up where the grass houses of Kekaa in Kaanapali once stood. A warehouse the size of a football field was built adjacent to Black Rock, where the Sheraton cottages are today. Between that and the site of the Maui Eldorado were 20 cottages for the men who loaded sugar onto ships offshore.

During the heyday of the sugar plantations, large tanks for fuel oil and molasses were on what is now the eighth green of the Royal Kaanapali Golf Course and the Sheraton's upper parking lot. Between the Sheraton and Kaanapali Beach Hotel sites were feeding pens where cattle were fattened with shredded pineapple skins and cores. To the south, toward the mountains from today's Maui Mariott and Hyatt Regency, was a race track, a festive place on Kamehameha Day, when the island's fastest horses were raced. Nearby was a small air field used by crop dusters and the first commercial planes.

Over the years, American Factors acquired massive land holdings by accepting stock when sugar companies needed money to get through depression or drought. By 1940, in West Maui, these holdings totaled 15,000 acres.

Kaanapali developed into a great wide sheet of waving, bladed green, divided by red clay cane haul roads and a railroad that ran all the way to Lahaina. Fertilizers had been introduced to the poor Kaanapali soil and artesian wells were dug to water the dry plains.

Then, in 1934, the fortunes of King Sugar reversed. The U.S. Congress enacted a law which ignored pre-territorial duty-free sugar agreements and reduced raw sugar imports to allow for increasing production of beet sugar from Colorado. By 1940, cheaper sugar entered the market from elsewhere in the world and there was no growth in employment or production at Pioneer Sugar Company, or at the other major agricultural firms. Plantation labor costs were going up as veterans returning from World War II wanted more than their fathers' jobs in the fields or the mills.

With the transfer of Maui's shipping facilities from Lahaina to Kahului, retail trade declined sharply. Between 1940 and 1953, the population of Lahaina decreased nearly 23 percent. The plantation town was dying by attrition.

The Pioneer Sugar Mill was still operating 50 years later, but the handwriting on the sand was writ large and clear: sleepy little Kaanapali was headed for another upheaval and the fields of green sugar cane were turning into hotel lawns and golf courses.

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Hawaiiana

Spring Break

Pia:
Beer

Pahu pia:
Case of beer

'Alekohola:
Alcohol

'Ona:
Drunk

Pā'ina:
Party

Hulō:
Cheers

Aia i hea ka pia?
Where is the beer?

E hele ana 'oe i ka pā'ina?
Are you going to the party?

Lawe mai i kou pia pono'ī
Bring your own beer

Mai kalaiwa a inu pia i ka manawa like
Don't drink beer and drive at the same time

He 21 makahiki 'oe?
Are you 21?

St. Patrick's Day

'Ōma'oma'o:
Green

'Iniki:
Pinch

No ke aha ua 'iniki 'oe ia'u?
Why did you pinch me?

No ka mea 'a'ole 'oe i 'a'ahu i kekahi mea 'ōma'oma'o
Beacuase you didn't wear anything green

Ua 'a'ahu 'oe i kekahi mea 'ōma'oma'o?
Are you wearing anything green?

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: I've told you before: stop provoking him.
BRADDAH-NICS: How many TIMES I went tell you: no get him going!

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: You know what she's like when she's upset.
BRADDAH-NICS: You know how her.

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: Wow! I couldn't get a word in edgewise and I just had to leave.
BRADDAH-NICS: Ho! Da mout' was goin' 240! I went pull one dig!

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Local Grinds

Curry Stew

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. beef stew meat
• 3 stalks of celery
• 1 round onion
• 2 cups of baby carrots
• 2 large potatoes
• 1 bar of Golden Curry mild

Procedure:

• Rinse stew meat well and add it into a cooking pot on high. Cover the meat with about 2-3 cups of water.
• Watch the pot and keep the cover on halfway to prevent it from overflowing. Add water as you go along if the meat needs to be covered.
• While waiting, chop up your vegetables:
• Rinse baby carrots
• Chop potatoes, celery and onions into bite sized chunks
• Potatoes need to sit in water to prevent it from turning brown
• Check your meat every half hour, after one hour it should be finished.
• Drain and rinse meat very well. Add 2 cups of water to the meat and set it back on the stove on medium-high. Add the celery, onions and carrots.
• Add half of the curry block. Cover and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
• Drain and add the potatoes and the remaining curry block. Mix well, cover and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.
• Shut stove off and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Pani Popo (Coconut Custard Biscuits)

Ingredients:

• 1 can of coconut milk
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 1 tsp of cornstarch
• 2 cans of pre-shaped biscuit batter
• 1tbsp butter

Procedure:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Butter a baking pan to prevent biscuits from sticking.
• Lay biscuits in rows to line in the baking pan, it is okay if biscuits are squished together.
• Place in the oven and let it bake for 10 minutes.
• After putting biscuits in oven, grab a saucepan and put the heat on medium.
• Add the coconut milk, cornstarch and the sugar in.
• Stir continuously to prevent it from burning or overflowing.
• Biscuits are finished when the tops are cooked but aren't the golden brown color.
• Take out of oven and make indentions with toothpicks to allow bread to soak easier.
• Pour half of the coconut syrup over biscuits, then use a spatula to push down all four sides of the biscuits in the pan. Cutting the biscuits at this time will allow it to soak the syrup even better. Pour over the remaining syrup.

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