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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, January 20, 2002

Versatile kiawe great for growing at home

By Heidi Bornhorst
Advertiser Gardens Columnist

Dear Heidi: We need a big specimen tree for our garden. I want a kiawe, and we need a thornless one so our keiki don't get their feet poked. Is there such a tree? If so, is it as pretty and gnarled as a regular kiawe? We really like the sculptural shape and character of kiawe.

The Hale Koa hotel has several thornless kiawe trees on the beachside lawn in front of its original tower.

Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

— Kristen Lum Bradley, Palolo

Dear Kristen: Yes, there is such a thing as thornless kiawe. It will take a while to develop its true artistic, gnarled character, but you and your family are young, so "grow for it."

One of the classic thornless kiawe specimens is at the zoo. It fell down in a storm, and the groundskeepers, led by Seiko Tamashiro, trimmed and shaped it, and even added a mound of soil and planted grass around it so keiki could safely climb this "living sculpture." It is on the stage lawn, across from the main elephant display.

There are also several large, old specimens at the Hale Koa hotel, on the beachside lawn in front of the original tower. These are expertly cared for by Daryl Barbadillo and his crew.

Either site would be a good place to collect seeds. They are a tropical bean — easy and fast to grow. Once they sprout and grow, transplant them to individual pots. When they are about 6 inches to a foot tall, you will be able to tell if they have thorns or not. Select the best, most vigorous ones. Keep watching to make sure they have no thorns, and grow the best one for your specimen kiawe. Give the rest away to others who might want such a nice character tree with no thorns.

You could feed the thorny ones to your pet goat or rabbit; and because they are nitrogen-fixing plants, they make rich mulch.

Kiawe is a great choice. It is tough, drought- and salt-tolerant, and makes a gorgeous specimen. I wish more people would think to plant such a legacy tree.

Being dryland trees, kiawe given too much water (as in an irrigated lawn) can become top-heavy. These trees need an annual thinning by a professional tree-trimmer or arborist so that they don't fall over in a high wind. The other option is to water the lawn less.

Kiawe has an interesting history in Hawai'i. Many of us have played, barbecued or slept under the inviting shade of a kiawe tree near the beach, or cooked our dinner over the best kiawe charcoal. What would Hawai'i be without kiawe trees? Well, not so long ago there was none here. Despite its Hawaiian name and very Hawaiian feeling, kiawe is actually a native of the driest parts of Peru.

Kiawe had a circuitous route to Hawai'i. From Peru it was carried to a botanical garden in Paris. Father Bachelot, the Catholic priest who ordained Father Damien, was in Paris, visited the garden, collected some kiawe beans and placed them in one of the folds of his cassock. Upon his return to Honolulu, he planted them. One of the original ones grew into a great tree, for many years shading Our Lady of Sorrows Church on Fort Street Mall in downtown Honolulu. (Unfortunately, it was cut down, but the massive stump with a memorial plaque remains). Kiawe was planted and soon spread over the dry parts of the Islands.

Cattle and ranchers love kiawe, and so do barbecuers. However, it has gone weedy and taken over many dryland areas. The thorns are wicked and go through rubber slippers. And it is such an aggressively drought-tolerant tree that it dried up some brackish wells that people had relied on for centuries on Moloka'i. Cattle and introduced plants are huge factors in environmental change in Hawai'i.

Horses, cattle and keiki love the sweet, sticky kiawe beans. One of my aunties told me that, when she was a kid on Kaua'i, they would ride around gathering kiawe beans in big burlap bags and sell them to the livestock farmers.

I remembered her stories when we went to the zoo and gathered lots of kiawe beans to feed to the goats and horses at the barn because my mom wouldn't give us much "good people food to waste on the well-fed zoo animals."

My friend, rancher Sammy Del Gado, told me a story of his youth. He never wanted to stay home, and rode with the paniolos from a young age. In those days, they had to round up the cattle that ran wild all over the North Shore. They drove them around Ka'ena Point all the way to the 'Ewa slaughterhouse. The cattle were pretty hungry after the long drive. But the boss would time it right so that the kiawe beans were all on the ground. He would let the cattle eat lots of beans then drink their fill of water. They weighed in pretty well at the time of slaughter.