Homestyle
Multipurpose alarcon can nourish a hungry soul
By Heidi Bornhorst
Alarcon is a very interesting and beautiful tree that also has prized edible flowers. You see it here and there in local gardens, especially those belonging to families of Filipino descent.
There had been two nice big ones at the Hale Koa Hotel that were removed to make way for new construction. The crew had liked them and their prized flowers, and missed them. Alarcon? I had never heard of this tree and was intrigued. I found that it is a fairly large tree with an attractive shape, and it makes great shade.
But when I asked around, nobody seemed to have one. Then I spoke with Jimmy Lorenzo the beverage manager, who also has a truck farm in Wai'anae. Lorenzo laughed when I spoke of our interest in alarcon and said he'd bring us a cutting or two.
We tried several times and finally, with the right combination of the proper phase of the moon and condition of the cutting, plus lots of irrigation and TLC, we got two alarcon trees to grow. We used big cuttings — 2 to 3 feet long and about 2 inches thick. Lorenzo had freshly cut them and soaked them in water before giving them to us for planting.
Plant experts Nathan Wong of the Honolulu Botanical Gardens, Angel Ramos and I were talking about this interesting, beautiful, useful and edible tree. They say we don't have enough variety in our diets or eat enough vegetables. Alarcon could be a remedy for that.
Ramos had a wealth of knowledge to share about this tree and how it arrived in Hawai'i. He says that there is a very nice tree in Kahuku, two houses makai of the Catholic church. He was told the first one was smuggled into Hawai'i many years ago in a guitar from the Philippines. They glued the seeds to the back — and for glue, the smugglers used the sap of the alarcon, which is white, mixed with the sap of marungay, which is red.
Federica Cacal from Kahuku believes the original seeds came to Hawai'i from the Bacarra province of the Philippines.
"We like to eat it with patis (fish sauce), boil a handful of ebi (dried shrimp) and barely cook the alarcon. It is a tender vegetable, so when you cook with it, add it last (just like kalamungai) so it doesn't lose its flavor, texture or vitamin content," Ramos said.
Another popular dish is a soup or stew prepared with mung beans or black-eyed peas with pork hash, alarcon and fish sauce. It can also be blanched and presented in a cold salad with tomato, onion, fish sauce and dried shrimp.
The tree is in the Moraceae or fig and banyan family. Ramos said that when his old house was demolished, his son told him to take some alarcon cuttings so they will still have the tree.
He did and he also observed that after the house and tree were knocked down, alarcon root suckers sprouted up. This again is a family trait and shows its relation to 'ulu, or breadfruit, which will also come up from, and can be propagated from, root sucker keiki.
The scientific name is Broussonetia luzonica. Alarcon, or alocon, is the Ilocano name. In Tagalog it is called baba-au. The flowers are green and stringy. The trees flower throughout the year, so you can get your veggies anytime.
