Natural History

'Alaaumoe, Night-Blooming Jasmine
(Cestrum nocturnum.)

The night-blooming jasmine is a tall shrub or small tree which is native to the West Indies and Central America. It was introduced into Hawaii before 1871 as an ornamental. Two other cestrums, the day cestrum (C. diurnum), which has white flowers and black berries and is fragrant during the day, and the orange cestrum (C. aurantiacum), which has white flowers and orange berries, were introduced around the same time.

In appearance, with its long sprawling branches which have light bark and pale green, lance-shaped leaves, about 4 to 6 inches long by 1-1/2 inch wide, the night-blooming jasmine is not very decorative; nor are the small, greenish-yellow, tubular flowers it produces periodically very noticeable. However, after dark, the clusters of small flowers release one of the most potent fragrances to be encountered in a tropical garden. Other names for it are "Queen of the Night" or "Night Syringa." Because some people find the smell so overpowering that they suffer from headache, nausea, dizziness and weakness after smelling the flowers in full bloom, the bushes are often planted at a distance form screened porches and verandas. The Hawaiian name for the plant, 'alaaumoe, means "fragrance late at night."

Each flower is about 3/4 inch long and expands toward the tip ending in five small pointed petals like a tiny crown. The flowers are followed by white berries about 1/3 inch in diameter. These berries are poisonous and should not be eaten.

Night-blooming jasmine is a relative of the tomato, potato and chili pepper. They are all members of the Solanaceae family, which includes some notoriously poisonous members like the deadly nighshade and the Jerusalem cherry. The unripe cestrum berries produce solanine, a glycoalkaloid toxin which damages the lining of the digestive tract and can also depress the central nervous system, slowing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure. The ripe berries produce another toxin that resembles atropine and also affects the central nervous system. In tropical America, healers use the fruit and sap of the night-blooming jasmine to treat epilepsy.

Birds do not seem to be affected by these toxins and they like eating the berries. The seeds are very viable and the plants have escaped into the wild on several islands.

Sometimes lei makers will use the cestrum flowers in their creations. The flowers have to be handled cautiously, however. Rubbing one or both eyes after handling the plant may cause the pupils to dilate and cause sensitivity to bright light and blurred vision which can last up to a week.

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Arts & Culture

Loaloa Heiau

The Loaloa Heiau was once the center of an important cultural complex around Kaupo. It is the great heiau of the district, a fort-like structure on a high hill on the west side of Manawainui Gulch, and is visible from almost any point in Kaupo. It measures 510 feet from east to west and is 100 feet wide.

William Metcalf Walker described the heiau as "a great open platform constructed of rough lava blocks built up in three step-terraces on the southeast side and four on the northeast side to a height of 30 feet. On top of the heiau at the southeast edge are 14 piles of stone and on the northeast 12 piles which give a particularly formidable appearance to the structure when seen from a distance."

Thomas G.Thrum, who was the leading writer of his day on Hawaiian archaeology and folklore, attributes the construction of the heiau (at about 1730 AD) to High Chief Kekaulike, King of Maui, who lived at Kaupo and died in 1736 at Lelekea gulch near Kaupo. He was the final ali'I to be interred in 'Iao Valley.

However, local oral tradition has it that Maui's longest heiau was actually built by the Menehune. As "proof" the storytellers point to the small footprints found by archaeologist Kenneth P. Emory which were embedded in the lava some 13 miles away from the heiau. Perfect child-sized footprints run every which way and in circles in the stone. The theory is that the stones the Menehune carried to build the heiau were so heavy their feet sank into the lava.

Anthropologist Michael Kolb from Northern Illinois University spent more than a decade locating and excavating the heiau on Maui. He conducted radiocarbon-dating analyses on samples of earth taken from 40 ruins on Maui. When Hawaiians built the temples, they would clear the land first by burning the vegetation, leaving behind charcoal bits which can be radiocarbon-dated. In findings published in 2006, Kolb said the analysis indicated that the earliest heiau may have been built as early as the 13th century, with construction continuing into the early 19th century.

It is worth noting that existing heiau were often co-opted by conquering chiefs, and expanded, redesigned, rebuilt and then re-dedicated. They were places of power, after all.

In any case, during Kekaulike's time, Loaloa heiau was a high-level luakini temple where human sacrifices were offered to his god of war. Kamehameha also made offerings here to his war god Kukailimoku. In 1801, the temple was re-dedicated by King Liholiho, Kamehameha's son, when he was still a child.

Apparently the heiau was first excavated by anthropologists in 1931.

Loaloa Heiau was added to the registry in the U.S. National Historic Landmark program on December 29, 1962. It is called "one of the few intact examples of a large luakini heiau." It is said the high priest Paoa came from Kahiki with a "pure-blooded" high chief and established many of the rituals, symbols and rites of the Hawaiian ali'i society just before western contact. (Modern archaeologists no longer believe in a historic Paoa; they think he's a legend. But, Hawaiians say that he was the one who introduced the bloody rites connected with the luakini heiau.)

In the past, Friends of Halekala National Park have organized all-day service trips to the heiau.

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: She and my sister got into a major cat-fight.
BRADDAH-NICS: Dem guys wen' t'row, man.

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: You really do have to do it now.
BRADDAH-NICS: You bettah do 'em now.

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: Do I have to do it myself?
BRADDAH-NICS: What? On'y me goin' do 'em?

 

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Local Grinds

Baked Salmon

Ingredients:

• 1 Fillet of Salmon
• 2 cups Mayonnaise
• 1 pkg. Imitation Crab
• 1 med. Round Onion
• 1 bundle Green Onion
• 1 pkg. Bacon
• 1 tray Fresh Mushroom
• Salt and Pepper to preference
• Lemon to preference

   

Procedure:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Cut imitation crab into chunks
• Cut your onions into cubes
• Wipe the mushrooms, do not rinse, then cut into slices
• Chop green onions
• In a small pan, fry up your bacon to crisp
• In a medium bowl, mix together mayonnaise, imitation crab, round onions, and mushrooms
• On a cookie sheet pan lined with foil, lay salmon fillet
• Smother mayonnaise mixture onto fillet
• Top it off with crisp bacon bits and green onion
• Put in oven for 45 minutes and let cook
• Squeeze lemon over cooked salmon to your preference

Baked Potato

• Clean potato
• Wrap potato in foil and bake for 2 hours
• Unwrap when done and slice the middle
• Stuff the center with cheese and dollop with sour cream
• Sprinkle with green onion if desire

Steamed Broccoli

• steam broccoli
• spray on butter

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