GRASSES, FLOWERS AND TREES, OH MY

Gently, an herbarium sheet of the Perrottetia sandwicensis or the olomea plant is opened before me.  I’m looking at more then just a plant. I am looking at a plant that was gathered in 1779 by David Nelson. Nelson traveled on the Discovery, the ship that accompanied the Resolution, commanded by none other than Captain James Cook, to the islands of Hawai’i. This would be Captain Cooks third and last voyage as he was killed on the island of Hawaii. On board the Resolution, as Cook’s sailing Master, was the infamous William Bligh, whom Nelson would later accompany, on the ill fated Bounty, to care for 600 Breadfruit plants.

Whipping out my camera, I ask tentatively If I can photograph the sheet. I want to photograph this little slice of history if only to vicariously touch this person and his experience at that point in time.

Perrottetia sandwicensis called olomea

 I am at the Herbarium Pacificum at Bishop Museum. Clyde Imada, a Research Specialist in the Botany Division of the Natural Sciences Department, is my guide. Hearing of of a project that the Botany Division is planning, I’ve come to find out what it is all about

         

Clyde Imada amongst his mounted plants

Clyde appears to be quiet and unassuming but his sense of humor peaks when he tells his wife Pumehana (who works in the Vertebrate Zoology Division) that I am here to interview him for the National Geographic. His enthusiasm shows as he introduces me to dried mounted plants, explaining about the types of makaloa, a sedge that grows on the islands. He shows me the sedge called kohekohe, deep red at the base, used to create designs on the famous Ni’ihau mats.  I see plants preserved in jars, photos of plants as they looked before drying and a wonderful wooden box, called Box Lamott, that was made specifically to hold mounted ferns. 

Box Lamott 

Clyde smiled when he told me that he did not especially like to garden. He liked to hike and identify plants. I thought this was odd but he soon explained the difference between a horticulturist and a botanist.

Clyde first got his degrees in cartography at the University of Hawai’i. Then he went back and got a second degree in horticultural technology. He has been at the Herbarium Pacificum for 25 years.

The Department of Natural Sciences was recently given funding for a project that will bring the Museum from the inside to the outside, so to speak. Through the Education through Cultural and Historic Organization (ECHO), Allen Allison (Vice President, Sciences)has conceived a program in which the majority of plants on the grounds will eventually be replaced with native and canoe plants. 

Clyde and Napua Harbottle (Collections Manager, Botany) are in the process of working on themes that would incorporate plants and Hawaiian cultural and natural history.  Among the host of plants that might be included, mamake was used medicinally and for bark cloth, and is the host plant for our native Kamehameha butterfly;  makaloa, used to weave fine mats; a restored kalo lo’I; or even a grove of wauke that could be tended for kapa-beating classes at the Museum.  Many plants could fill the grounds that would complete the authenticity of the museum. 

The plan at this time is to start on Phase 1, which will commence near Hale ‘Ikehu. It was even suggested that the Hale might be converted into a classroom to be used to teach how to use these plants as the Hawaiians did in their everyday life.

One of the ECHO requirements is that the vender chosen to do the job must be willing to participate in a internship in which high school and college-aged students will be able to participate in planning all stages of the landscaping. This is to be a community participation project.

This first stage of the program will have to prove viable to continue to receiving funding from ECHO. It is hoped that groundbreaking will begin sometime in late January or early February 2010.

Clyde expressed a hope that the community might embrace the opportunity to actively participate in bringing this project to fruition. Volunteers will be needed to help to clear the project area, plant, weed, and create signage and a self-guided garden tour brochure.  Once the landscaping is installed, there will also be a need for people who might want to adopt an area and help to maintain it. 

The environment for the kanaka maoli is just as much an artifact as what is contained in the museum. An immense part of their life was dependent on what they grew or harvested from the native landscape: Food containers, clothing, household objects, fishing and hunting equipment, weapons, medicine and of course food. In the Museum all that is shown can be connected to all that is grown.

This project will add so much more to our garden tour and to the museum. Maybe we can even plant the olomea and add the story of the Discovery to tell our visitors.