Events

Natural History

Moa, Whisk Fern
(Psilotum nudum)

This strange very primitive plant is a living link to the ancient past and earlier forms of the earth's vegetation. It does not have leaves or roots. More primitive than a fern, the moa is considered a "fern ally." Moa can reach two feet in height and grow into a bushy mass several feet across. It produces small, slender, forking branches with tiny, pointed, scale-like leaves scattered fairly uniformly over the branches. The perennial plant stands more or less erect and is shrubby or tufted. Other names for the plant are 'o'omoa and pipi.

  The green, photosynthetic parts of the stems function as leaves while the underground stems or rhizomes serve as roots since they contain a very small fungus which absorbs nutrients and water. Among the upper scales there are three-chambered yellow fruiting bodies (sporangia) which open when ripe and release a multitude of tiny spores.

Found in many tropical environments, moa grows on the ground, in rocky crevices or as an air-plant (epiphyte) perched on the trunks of trees. It can survive in moderately dry as well as wet environments and is widely distributed because it propagates itself through spores. It ranges from near sea level up into the rain forests at over 4,600 feet elevation.

Traditionally Hawaiians have prepared a thrush medicine and laxative tea by boiling the moa plant. The plant was an important medicinal herb once, but is rarely used today. The stems, either fresh or dry, were brewed alone or with a few other plants to make a tea used as an "opening medicine," a purgative (either as a laxative or cathartic) which was usually the first medicine administered in a treatment. The tea was often used as a tonic for pain relief as well. One source says the oily spores were used by men as a kind of talcum powder to prevent groin irritation produced by wearing loin cloths (malo). The tufted tips of the plant was used in lei as well.

Children used the plant to play a game called moa nahele, or cock fighting. Two children sat or stood facing each other, each holding a branched stem of moa. They interlocked the stems and then slowly pulled them apart until one or the other broke. The child with the unbroken branch crowed like a rooster to announce his or her win.

 

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Arts & Culture

Ymca Camp Keanae

The YMCA Camp Keanae is located midway between the 16- and 17-mile markers on the road to Hana. Perched on an isolated headland overlooking the coast, the camp has guest cabins and is run as a sanctioned American Youth Hostel. The camp has a long history.

In June, 1925, Governor Wallace Farrington and the County Board of Supervisors Chairman Samuel Kalama led a grand procession of cars on the official opening of the road from Kailua to Hana. The road was called the Belt Road and would link the isolated communities of East Maui with the rest of the island. (Before the road was built, travel was possible only by steamer or on the ditch trail by horse or mule.) By December, 1926, the governor and the board chairman were able to drive all the way to Hana on the dream road that was fast becoming a reality.

A large part of the road to Hana was constructed by prison labor based at the Ke'anae Prison Camp. The camp was built in 1926 to house the prisoners who would construct the road, including several bridges from Kailua to Hana. When the road was completed in 1927, men from Keanae to Hana town were hired to maintain the road, especially during the rainy season.

Ten years later, the prison camp was converted into quarters for the Civilian Conservation Corps. This federal program, created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide jobs to get the United States through the depression, brought in men from other parts of Maui and other islands to plant thousands of eucalyptus and other introduced trees throughout the Hana coast.

In December 1942, during World War II, Governor Ingram Stainback tried to assist the war effort by sending forty inmates from Oahu Prison to the Keanae Prison camp to revive the old Nahiku rubber plantations in the hope of yielding 20,000 to 50,000 pounds of crude rubber annually. The venture was no more successful than the earlier ones had been.

At one time there were over 25,000 rubber trees of different varieties growing in and around Nahiku. They were planted in the early 1900's by the Nahiku Rubber Plantation, and by the American and Ko'olau Rubber Company. By 1912, the plantations were beginning to be phased out. The quality and quantity of the rubber produced on the wet Nahiku coast was too low to make a profit.

Eventually, in 1949, the camp was acquired by the YMCA. Part of the land area continues to be used as a base yard for the Maui County Public Works.

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: I am very upset by your procrastination. I'd like it done now, please.
BRADDAH-NICS: Bumbye...bumbye....I tired your bumbye. Bumbye better be now!

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STANDARD: Please come and look at this.
BRADDAH-NICS: You can check dis out?

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STANDARD: Your impatience is beginning to get on my nerves. We will be eating shortly.
BRADDAH-NICS: What'chu tink dis? Burgah King?

 

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Local Grinds

Dungeness Crab Appetizer

Ingredients:

• 1 box frozen artichoke hearts
• 1 can real crab meat (or equivalent fresh if available)
• 1 cup swiss cheese
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 cups mayonnaise
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper

Procedure:

Empty all ingredients in large and mix thoroughly. Place mixture in pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top browns.
Cut into pieces and serve with garlic bread or foccacia.

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