To conclude this month of celebrating native plants, we set our sights on the wiliwili, also known as the Erithryina sandwicensis. Wiliwili, named for the way their seed pods twist and turn, is the only endemic Erythrina to Hawaiʻi, with many relatives spanning Africa, Asia and the Americas. Although their gorgeous blooms won’t be present until Oct—Nov, this dryland tree is currently entering the deciduous period of their seasonal cycle, where many of its leaves shed and is a marvel in itself! Dropping many, if not all, leaves helps the tree reduce the amount of water required to sustain itself through our hot, dry summers. The specimen on our campus has yet to flower since being planted in 2018, but the abundance of leaf litter these past few days is starting to get our hopes up—tune in later this year to see if our hunch is right!

Hōʻawa (Pittosporum hosmeri) is an endemic shrub/tree whose fruit was once a primary food source for the ‘alalā, the only remaining endemic corvid (crow) in Hawaiʻi—which is now extinct in the wild. The genus name, Pittosporum, derived from the Greek word for “pitch-seed,” refers to its large sticky seeds, and the specific epithet hosmeri refers to Hawaiʻi’s first territorial forester, Ralph Sheldon Hosmer. Hosmer, acting on behalf of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association and the Territorial Government, guided forth Act 44 on April 25th, 1903, placing a quarter of Hawaiian lands, which consisted of government buildings and private holdings, into Hawaiʻi’s Forest Reserve System. This was to combat both the drought that threatened economic interests of plantation owners, as well as to aid against the timber shortage plaguing the U.S. at the time. Much like the symbiotic relationship between the hō’awa and ʻalalā, Hosmer realized that humans could not survive without a resilient watershed. Mānoa Heritage Center sends our mahalo to Hawaiian foresters of the past, present, and future, for planting trees whose shade they will never sit in. I ka wā ma mua, ka wā ma hope.

Our latest quarterly conservation lecture—Kahaukani Conversations—featured Dr. Patrick Hart, a biologist and avian researcher working for the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. In an hour-long Zoom discussion, Dr. Hart gave an insightful explanation about the extensive repertoire of bird song that can be vocalized by Hawaiʻi’s native birds—as well as how that vocabulary is shrinking due to our feathered friends’ dwindling population. You can check out the full recording of Dr. Hart’s talk on our YouTube account by hitting the link in our bio.

Uhiuhi (Mezoneuron kaviense) is a dry-mesic forest shrub/tree, and the only member of the Mezoneuron genus endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. (It is worth noting that its family, Fabaceae, harbors many Hawaiʻi natives including koa, wiliwili and ʻōhai.) Thought to have arrived to the islands via ocean currents, the ancestors of this plant evolved with a trait that no other member of its genus had prior, arborescence—having the shape or characteristics of a tree. Many of our native plants developed this trait due to them arriving as coastal inhabitants, then adapting and moving towards the stable, more consistent climate provided by upland wet forests. Uses for uhiuhi include utilizing its hard wood in hale building and tool making, as well as making lei with its gorgeous pink flowers.

Our Mānoa Heritage Center Education Team—and Verma the worm!—made the voyage down to Voyager Public Charter School last Wednesday to teach keiki about vermicomposting and to share some of MHC’s educational programs with them, such as a Hawaiian plant memory game and more. While MHC’s educational staff doesn’t normally conduct off site school visits, a special outing was made to accommodate Voyager’s kindergarten through 2nd grade classes, as they couldn’t make it down to Mānoa Heritage Center when their older classmates—Grades 3-6—visited last month.

Discover and learn more about the complex world of Hawaiian bird songs with Dr. Patrick Hart, professor of biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. Conducted over Zoom and free of charge on Thursday, April 18, from 6pm to 7:15pm HST, this 75-minute talk will discuss the incredible diversity found in Hawaiian birdsong, as well as some of the impacts of habitat fragmentation and population decline on song-learning and repertoire. Register for the talk with the link in our bio!

Kupukupu (Nephrolepis cordifolia) is an indigenous sword fern widespread throughout the Pacific and beyond. Its native range reaches from the lower Himalayas—where its tubers (enlarged, underground sections of the stem) were consumed as an antibacterial medicine—all the way down under to Australia. In ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, kupu means to sprout, or grow, the manaʻo of which is represented in the placement of these natives at Mānoa Heritage Center’s Visitor Education Hale, where students of all ages come to cultivate and grow their aloha ʻāina!

Last Saturday, April 6, Dianne Ige led a class of six through the process of turning palm husks—what many would consider yard debris or trash—into works of art. And it’s safe to say that all of her students did just that. From cleaning the husk, molding it with their own hands, stitching it together and adding subtle design choices to their pieces, everyone left with a unique palm husk vase or bag that proved one person’s trash can be another’s treasure. Dianne Ige will be hosting a kokedama (moss ball) workshop at Mānoa Heritage Center on May 11, click the link in our bio to find out more.

Standing on the balcony of our historic home, Kūaliʻi, we welcome our new Archives Division to Mānoa Heritage Center. Jill Sommer (back), director of collections, and John Barker (right), curator of archives, joins veteran MHC staffer Kelsey Hara (front), collection specialist, to form Mānoa Heritage Center’s newest division. Jenny Leung (left), former cultural site manager, welcomes the new crew to the home where they’ll be helping to preserve and archive the site and its collection. Please give them a warm aloha as they join our MHC ʻohana.