Ua kākau ʻia keia wahi atikala naʻu e hōʻike maʻaneʻi:
Ethnobotany: Plants in the Hawaiian Cultural Environment
by Sam ‘Ohukani‘ōhi‘a Gon III
Ethnobotany is an anthropological discipline that studies the relationship between people and plants in their environment. Cultures all over the world have used plants to satisfy basic human needs such as clothing, shelter, and food.
Ethnobotany is a major branch of the broader science of Ethnobiology -- Ethnobiology refers to the cultural uses and roles that living things (plants and animals) play for a particular ethnic group (in this case, Hawaiians). Hawaiian ethnobiology includes uses of plants, fishes, and other living things for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, warfare, ornamentation, religion, recreation, and any other human use. In most cases, this is reflected in materials derived from living things: fiber, dyes, thatching, mats, foodstuff, structures, sailing vessels, weapons, etc. When a particular location is noted for ethnobiological significance, it indicates that one might find native or polynesian introduced plants and/or animals, materials or structures derived from those living things, cultural structures related to ethnobiology (e.g., heiau dedicated to medical arts), and in some cases, native Hawaiian communities or individuals who can interpret the ethnobiological significance of a site.
Some people view Hawaiian ethnobotany primarily as the study of the role of plants in the ancient, traditional culture of Hawai‘i, prior to western contact. However, in a real sense, ethnobotanical pursuits continue to today with the persistence of Hawaiian reliance on key food plants (such as kalo), and ornamentation plants (used in lei for hula), and the resurgence of traditional arts (e.g., lā‘au lapa‘au, kapa making, and weaving of lauhala and ‘ie‘ie). This means that the list of plant species being used culturally is growing beyond the set used in pre-contact times. Nonetheless, it is important to make distinctions between native (indigenous and endemic) species used by Hawaiians, Polynesian introductions (species brought by Hawaiian ancestors from the central Pacific to Hawai‘i prior to western contact), and post-contact introductions (including many species thought of as "Hawaiian" and heavily used by Hawaiians, having been adopted into the culture.
SIDEBAR: Laua‘e: an adopted Hawaiian -- One particularly good example of a post-contact plant deeply incorporated into Hawaiian culture is the laua‘e fern (Phymatosorus scolopendria), shown above, which is used in lei because of its maile-like fragrance, and which is ubiquitously considered a Hawaiian plant. The term laua‘e even appears in ‘ōlelo no‘eau and in song and chant (especially on Kaua‘i), but that which we call laua‘e today has been shown to be a fern species that was not documented in the islands until after 1900!
The ancient plant called laua‘e was a related endemic fern, Microsorum spectrum, shown above, also known as pe‘ahi. It also has a fragrant scent, and while no longer common in the lowlands, still can be found at higher elevations. Some of the larger populations of pe‘ahi still occur on Kaua‘i, for example, in the upper reaches of Wainiha Valley.
Native plants: There are few places in the world where so high a percentage of the native plants have native names. This is an indication of how important native plant species were in Hawaiian material culture, and how important it was for Hawaiians to understand intimately the details of the natural environment. Woods of many tree species were used for shelter, canoes, tools, weapons, and other durable items. While few native plants offered foodstuff, they provided shelter, cordage, clothing (via kapa), fuel (via wood and oils), medicines, dyes, ornamentation, playthings, and items of ritual or sacred importance.
Polynesian Introductions -- Of the thousands of plants and animals that have been introduced by human beings to the Hawaiian Islands, only perhaps a hundred were introduced by the Polynesian ancestors of the Hawaiian people. Among these are food plants such as kalo (or taro, Colocasia esculenta), mai‘a (bananas, Musca paradisica), niu (coconut, Cocos nucifera), ulu (breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis), uala (sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas), pia (Tacca leontopetaloides), kō (sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum), and hoi (yam, Dioscorea spp.), fiber, clothing, and plaiting plants, such as kī (or ti, Cordyline fruticosa), hala (Pandanus tectorius, which was also found naturally in Hawai‘i, but of which several varieties were later brought by Hawaiians), and wauke (paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera), ipu (gourd, Lagenaria siceraria), ‘ohe (bamboo, Schizostachyum glaucifolium), animals such as pua‘a (pig, Sus scrofa), ‘īlio (dog, Canis familiarus), and moa (chicken, Gallus gallus) for food, and accidentals such as ‘iole (Polynesian rat, Rattus exulans), mo‘o (several species of geckos and skinks), and snails (two species associated with taro cultivation). When these are present at a site, it is an indication that the area was once, or continues to be important as a Hawaiian cultural site.
Post-contact introductions – The great majority of plants introduced into Hawai‘i since western contact have not been especially important in Hawaiian culture, but there are quite a few exceptions worth mentioning. Many of the flowers used in lei today are hardy and colorful introductions that were not available in ancient times. Plumeria and carnation lei are obvious examples, but more subtle are those lei that are considered Hawaiian beyond question, such as pikake, pakalana, laua‘e, and kukunaokalā, that are actually introductions embraced by Hawaiians for their fragrance or beauty, and given Hawaiian names. The calabash, la‘amia, is another post-contact introduction deeply inserted into Hawaiian culture. In truth, as long as there is a recognizable Hawaiian culture, then the plants that are incorporated into this culture are within the realm of ethnobotany, from ancient times to the present, and onward.
SIDEBAR: Some ethnobotanical highlights of a few Hawaiian plants
koa: Acacia koa, used in weapons (clubs, handles for lei o manō and newa), ‘umeke (wooden storage bowls -- although not for holding poi, as it imparted a bitter flavor), the main hull of wa‘a (canoes) and hoe (paddles), dye for kapa (from koa bark), pouhana (vertical house posts)
‘ōhi‘a lehua: Metrosideros polymorpha, used for ki‘i (sacred temple images), pā (fenced enclosures), pouhana (vertical house posts), mo‘o (canoe gunwales), lei, especially in ritual (sacred to Kū, Pele, and via Hi‘iaka and Laka, to hula), papa ku‘i ‘ai (poi pounding boards), ‘umeke (bowls), lā‘au lapa‘au (herbal medicines, especially the young leaves)
‘ie‘ie: mountain screwpine, Freycinetia arborea, used in ritual (flowering branches offered on the altar sacred to Laka in hula), woven items (from aerial roots): hīna‘i (funnel fish and shrimp traps), storage containers, ka‘ai (ritual sarcophagi), mahiole (helmets, the framework of which was of woven ‘ie‘ie roots, decorated with feathers), ki‘i hulu manu (god-images with a foundation of woven ‘ie‘ie roots and decorated with feathers), lashings for house structures (both the aerial roots and the fibers of the stem)
naio: Myoporum sandvisense, preferred wood for house construction, mo‘o (canoe gunwales).
hāpu‘u: tree fern, Cibotium spp., pulu (fine hair-like covering of young shoots) used in embalming, filling body cavities after organs removed, starchy core of trunk steamed and eaten as a famine food, or fed to pigs, steamed fiddleheads (coiled fern shoots) also steamed and eaten or used as pig food.
naupaka kahakai: beach naupaka, Scaevola sericea, little is recorded of its use in ancient Hawai‘i, mentioned occasionally in lā‘au lapa‘au (herbal medicine).
kalo: taro, Colocasia esculenta, fundamentally important as a primary starch food plant in ancient Hawai‘i, leaves and starchy corm steamed and eaten; ritual uses (sacred to Käne, kalo is considered the elder sibling to human beings), important in lä‘au lapa‘au (herbal medicines, as in poultices, styptics, etc.), dye for ornamenting la‘amia (calabash).
niu: coconut, Cocos nucifera, important food and drink plant, ritual importance as kinolau of the god Kü, frond used in rituals of high rank, leaves plaited into baskets and other items, trunk carved into pahu (ceremonial drums), or hollowed into a canoe called loloniu, coconut shell carved into ‘apu (cups) or other eating utensils, shell also used to make a small drum (puniu); stiff midribs of leaflets (ni‘au) bunched and tied into small brooms, ni‘au also used to string kernels of kukui as traditional candles, and in a game called panapanani‘au; coconut husk strands made into a sennit rope (‘aha), preferred for lashing canoes because of resistance to seawater, ‘aha were also woven into ma‘a (slings) for warfare, and used in several kinds of rituals.
uala: sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, another major food plant, especially in drier areas (where kalo could not be grown) the underground tubers were steamed and eaten; sacred to the god Lono, and important in lä‘au lapa‘au (herbal medicines)
Additional reading:
For more information and examples of Hawaiian ethnobotany, I have found the following written sources to be useful:
Krauss, Beatrice. Hawaiian Ethnobotany.
Abbott, Isabella. Lā‘au Hawai‘i.
Gutmanis, et al. Kahuna Lā‘au Lapa‘au.
Degener, Otto. Plants of Hawai‘i National Parks.
Rock, Joseph. Indigenous Trees of the Hawaiian Islands.
Holmes, Tommy. The Hawaiian Canoe.
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