4C HOME SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015 | WEST HAWAII TODAY Introduce new plant materials to Hawaii correctly Texture Inc. Natural Stone Overstock Liquidation Sale Contractor Overstock 50-75% Off June 11th 9–3 Contractors Special • June 12th/13th General Public 9–3 • Stone as low as $0.25 sf • Up to 75% stock prices Travertine, Quartzite, Granite, Pre-fabs, Limestone etc… 74 Kamanu St (Mauka off Queen K Tesoro) No pick-ups on day of sale; to be arranged for a later date. As gardeners and farmers, most of us will not be recognized in any history books as being responsible for the introduction of a new crop or plant to a location. However, the possibility exists for anyone who has the passion and drive to popularize a plant and to take it to new levels of assimilation (tomatillos anyone?). Introduction of new plants has been ongoing in Hawaii as long as humans have been living here. While this is not unique to Hawaii since from the time humans adopted agriculture as a means to stabilize their food supply, plants were moved to wherever they visited and settled. This is true for human immigration and visitation to Hawaii where many plants including banana, ulu, kalo, kukui, ti and others collectively known as canoe plants were introduced into Hawaiian gardens and the natural landscape. Many of these plants were utilized as food, fiber or medicine, while others were used for religious or symbolic purposes. With the arrival of Western and Eastern cultures, a great many more plants arrived on our island shores. Plants that were important to Western and Eastern diets, tropical fruits and vegetables from around the world, and many plants of ornamental value were introduced. One such person recognized as being an introducer and popularizer was the Spaniard Don Francisco de Paula Marin. Marin was a man who added a rich history to Hawaii as a horticulturist, and also as an adviser and translator to King Kamehameha I. He arrived in Hawaii in the early to mid 1790s from San Francisco. It has been reported that he jumped ship from the Spanish navy in San Francisco because he claimed to have be shanghaied to serve. Prior to the Spanish navy, Marin worked on a vineyard where he learned many of his horticultural skills. Upon his arrival in Hawaii, he became friendly with Kamehameha I and soon was acting as his translator for the many visitors passing through. He also served as the king’s bookkeeper for the sandalwood trade. In return for his service, the king gave Marin land for his agricultural planting and experiments in Nuuanu, Oahu, for growing many types of plants. In his garden, he not only grew many new plants, but also determined how to best grow many plants that were already in Hawaii. Marin is often credited for the introduction of many of the crops that we grow today and are commonly associated with the islands. Because of his connection to the king and visitors coming and going, he requested plants and seeds from all over the world to add to his collection. The crops attributed to him were apples, asparagus, avocados, cabbage, carrots, chili pepper, eggplant, lemons, limes, macadamia, olives, onion, oranges, parsley, peas, peaches, pears, potatoes, rice, tea and tobacco, to name a few. However, only a few plants are truly known to have been introduced by Marin, those being the pineapple, coffee, avocado, mango and grapes. For the other crops, a more likely scenario is that he popularized those crops by learning how to grow them well in his garden and Hawaii. He was the first to have a vineyard in Hawaii and as a result we have Vineyard Street in Honolulu, which took the name of what it cut through. He also engaged in selling ship provisions, all products of his bountiful gardens. Marin’s life is chronicled in the biography “The Letters and Journals of Francisco De Paula Marin” by Ross H. Gast. It covers the circumstances of his arrival in Hawaii and his association with the Hawaiian Monarchy, especially Kamehameha I. It was reported that he had at least three wives and more than 20 children. As a side note, the Hawaiian translation of Marin is manini as in the fish also known as the convict tang. In the biography by Gast, it was noted that Marin was less than generous with sharing his garden’s bounty of plants and seeds, a characteristic that is greatly frowned upon by nearly all gardeners to this day. In Marin’s defense, this may be because of his reluctance to share his rare plants to those who may not know how to care for it or the problems of propagating deciduous and other hard to propagate plants in the tropics. Whatever the truth may be, here in Hawaii, we still use the euphemism “manini” when referring to the actions of an individual who does not share generously, courtesy of Marin. While many gardeners would like to emulate Marin in action by introducing a wealth of new plant materials to Hawaii, please do it correctly. Do not collect plants or seeds from the wild without proper documentation to collect and have the proper import documents to bring them into Hawaii. If quarantine and/or inspection is required, it is only for the combined benefit for all as we already have too many unwanted plant, insect and disease pest in Hawaii. Nagata can be reached at russelln@hawaii.edu. BY RUSSELL T. NAGATA SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY VOLCANO WATCH International team visits Hawaii to study volcanic impacts Hawaii’s mid-Pacific location makes it an excellent meeting ground for globally dispersed collaborators of all kinds. For the next two weeks, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory will host scientists from New Zealand and Alaska who are funded in part by a joint U.S.-New Zealand Commission on Science and Technology Cooperation. The commission supports international partnerships to co-develop advances in research, science and technology. The scientists are here to focus on the impacts of three important and globallyrelevant volcanic hazards: volcanic ash, volcanic gas and lava flows. The team includes USGS Geologist Kristi Wallace from Alaska Volcano Observatory and her New Zealand counterparts — Graham Leonard from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Carol Stewart from Massey University and Tom Wilson from the University of Canterbury — all part of an international working group on volcanic ash. The working group’s mission is to provide guidance to people, businesses and communities facing potential impacts from volcanic ash. They work in close cooperation with the International Volcanic Health Hazard Network to understand the impacts of ash on agriculture, infrastructure, water supplies and human health. Surprisingly, there is little rigorous documentation of the effects of ash on these critical aspects of human activities. The New Zealand government has made it possible for the team to travel to sites of recent explosive eruptions to study how people were impacted and how they coped. New Zealand scientists in the working group have also conducted novel laboratory experiments to examine the impact of ash-fall on common electronics like computers and air-conditioning units. Imagine, for example, a desktop computer in an enclosed chamber. Now flip the switch and blast some gritty, abrasive, slightly acidic volcanic ash of varying concentrations into the chamber to see how well the hard drive, power supply and fan continue to function. (It turns out that they are surprisingly resilient.) Even Kilauea and Mauna Loa have ashproducing eruptions from time to time, and the current activity at the summit of Kilauea occasionally sends small qualities of ash downwind. So, despite the team’s focus on recurring ash eruptions from charismatic stratovolcanoes such as Mount St. Helens, Hawaii and HVO will gain something from its efforts. The second objective of this international team is to learn about the impacts of Kilauea Volcano’s June 27 lava flow and ongoing volcanic gas emissions on people, infrastructure and agriculture in Hawaii. As Puna residents know all too well, the June 27 lava flow buried a road, destroyed one house, partially inundated a new solid waste transfer station and threatened utility poles. Meanwhile at the summit of Kilauea, volcanic gas emissions continue to spread over the island and indeed the entire state. The scientists are also interested in how people who call the Puna District home deal with the stresses related to living on one of the world’s most active volcanoes. The team will be meeting with representatives from business and government to gather insight into how communities and individuals cope with the threat of lava inundation. Hawaii is a spectacular laboratory for studying the ways in which people try to live in harmony with volcanoes and other natural hazards. For two weeks, scientists will be looking for insight that they can share with other citizens of planet Earth who find themselves in similar situations. You can find some of this information about impacts of volcanic ash on these web sites: gns.cri.nz/Home/ Learning/Science-Topics/ Volcanoes/Eruption- What-to-do/Ash-Impact- Posters, volcanoes.usgs. gov/ash and ivhhn.org. Kilauea activity update Kilauea’s summit lava lake level fluctuated over the past week, but remained well below the Overlook crater (vent) rim and out of view from Jaggar Museum Thursday morning, the lake was about 161 feet below the Overlook crater rim. Kilauea’s East Rift Zone lava flow continues to feed widespread breakouts northeast of Puu Oo. The active flows remain within about 5 miles of Puu Oo. One felt earthquake was reported on Hawaii Island of Hawaii in the past week. On May 31 at 11:59 a.m., a magnitude-3.6 earthquake occurred 8.9 miles southeast of Kilauea Summit at a depth of 5.5 miles. Visit the HVO website at hvo.wr.usgs.gov for Kilauea daily eruption updates and other volcano status reports,. Volcano Watch is a weekly article and activity update written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY Ash damages a corn crop in Ecuador following an eruption of Tungurahua Volcano. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY PATRICIO RAMON, ESCUELA POLITECNICA NACIONAL, QUITO, ECUADOR
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