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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, October 17, 2003

HAWAI'I GARDENS
Makua plants need nurture, propagation to revive post-burn

By Heidi Bornhorst

Q. Which native Hawaiian plants were destroyed in the Makua fire when the Army's controlled burn got out of hand?

A. I contacted our state botanist, Vickie Caraway, and she shared the Makua fact sheet with me.

The endangered plants which burned are nehe, 'akoko and kulu'i, three species out of 34 endangered plants found on the Makua Military Reservation.

Thirty-seven Chamasyce celastroides kaenana ('akoko) plants were destroyed; that was 9 percent of the 'akoko in the reservation and an estimated 4 percent of the akoko in the state.

Twenty-nine Lipochaeta tenufolia (nehe) burned; that's 1 percent of the total in the reservation, and since about two-thirds of all 3,600 to 4,000 nehe plants in the state are in Makua, 0.8 percent of the state's population.

Five Nototrichium humile (kulu'i) burned out of as many as 681 plants in the reservation; that's less than 1 percent of the state total.

These are all plants with potential for use in gardens.

Horticulture and propagation can be used to help perpetuate these rare species. Trained gardeners could also help to grow more plants for outplantings back into the burned areas of Makua and Ka'ena. The conservation hui of the Garden Club of Honolulu is considering such a project.

Plant a red garden

Sometimes you will see a garden that just sings to you. I recently saw a great red garden on Kaua'i, designed and expertly maintained by horticulturist Joanne Pinney. It had old-fashioned red odontonema, red ginger (always a winner) and double-red canna lilies (a plant we should use more of. The flowers are beautiful and the perfect round seeds are needed for hula implements like 'uli 'uli. There is a red mini hibiscus relative that blooms all the time.

That pleasing small tree or large shrub jatropa also has red flowers that are usually always in bright cheerful bloom. It is an easy to care for drought and wind resistant plant. It is fairly salt-tolerant, and you can prune it into a shape and height that matches your garden.

Red bottlebrush is also a great garden tree for the red theme. I have come to appreciate red bottlebrush, Callistemon citrinus, more and more over the years.

My friend, Wahiawa neighbor and garden volunteer Bess Funkhouser, taught me to appreciate the bottlebrush for the number and variety of birds that visit and feed on the abundant nectar in the hanging blossoms throughout the day. Bottlebrush comes to us from Australia.

I also noted on Kaua'i what nice, deeply furrowed bark it has. The tree I saw down in Hanalei was mossy trunked and had some of the most robust and sturdy blooming dendrobium orchids I've seen in awhile.

Pentas is another plant that is easy to grow, blooms well and comes in a great red color. There are also pink, white and other colors. This is a garden plant that I remember from my keiki days. Our neighbor Mrs. Young always had pretty plantings of it along the walkway and under her lychee tree.

What's in bloom

Rainbow shower trees are still looking good everywhere. Check them out in Kapi'olani Park — these are handsome and well-grown large trees, full of flowers. A rainbow shower tree in a deep watermelon shade is in Wahiawa, at the freeway entrance where wrecked cars are displayed to discourage us from driving drunk. Also, there is a grove of this pretty shower tree with the half-open blossoms up at Leilehua High School.

Agapanthus or Nile lilies are also having a late blooming season. My friend Mrs. Zane in Manoa has a blooming patch, along with mondo and dwarf mondo. (All are in the lily family.)