Posted on: Friday, October 1, 2004
HAWAI'I GARDENS
Talipot palm flowers once in its lifetime
| • | Home & Garden Calendar |
By Heidi Bornhorst
Two exceptional plants — the largest and tallest flower in the plant kingdom, and a Hawaiian native that's considered an aphrodisiac — are blooming now.
The talipot, Corypha umbraculifera, an Asian palm, blooms only once in its lifetime. Enthusiasts can check out the one in bloom now at Foster Botanical Garden.
From across the vast expanse of green lawn, you can see that something special and significant is going on. Your eyes are caught by the sight of the bright flower cluster, fountaining up, out and above the massive base of stout green palm fronds. Tiny insects hover in a cloud around the inflorescence. Are they pollinating the blossoms or just admiring them? Some of the small, pale palm flowers, which are only about a fourth of an inch in diameter, gently rain down on you as you look up, and they lightly carpet the ground below.
Landscaper Keith Nobriga and I planted this talipot in 1981. The garden acquired the seeds in 1967, and a few little palms had been languishing in the nursery for some years. It was time to get them into the ground.
At the time, I was on the Honolulu Botanical Gardens staff and had been taking training from palm taxonomist and horticulturalist Ray Barker of the Lyon Arboretum. We were learning about the myriad types of palms in the world, many hundreds of which grow in local botanical gardens. In contrast, only 20 to 30 kinds of palms are generally sold in the nursery trade.
One day as I was weeding in the nursery and reading plant labels, I found a batch of C. umbraculifera. I got all excited, weeded and cleaned the plants up and went in to talk to our director, Paul Weissich.
"Please, can we plant some out in Foster?" I asked. "We should have the largest flower of any tree in the world growing in our botanical garden. We could plant the talipots next to the largest fruit in the world, the double coconut, Lodoicea maldivica."
I suggested we plant it on the main terrace (the oldest part of the garden, dating back to the 1850s). There was a puka where the freeway noise got really bad, up where a fish
poison tree (Barringtonia asiatica) once grew. Weissich agreed and Nobriga and I got to work, planting out the talipot palms. Many are planted at Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kane'ohe, but Foster needed some, too.
The talipot is a special and significant plant of a type called a monocarpic palm. Once it starts flowering, it stops growing, and eventually the mother palm dies. There will be lots of seeds, as there are estimated to be 10 million tiny fragrant flowers on the palm inflorescence.
This tree grows and grows, building up the energy and strength to send out a massive flower spike with thousands of flowers. These get pollinated and develop into seeds, and after a year or so, the palm dies. It is supposed to take 50-100 years for a talipot to bloom, but apparently this palm didn't read the book!
Talipot has many uses. They are a great shelter from the rain and are used for thatch, hats, buckets and baskets. A sort of wine can be tapped from the flower stalk, and sago starch can be harvested from the trunk. The heart can be eaten and is said to be tasty.
Also in bloom now, though much more common, is the male hala tree.
There is a specific name in Hawaiian for the male flower, it is hinano; you will hear it mentioned as the topic of many songs with sexual or romantic kaona (double meaning). The pollen and gorgeous white bracts of the male flower are used in Hawaiian love potions.
Hala, Pandanus tectorus, is a native Hawaiian tree known for its beauty and many uses such as the fine mats made from the bracts of the hinano.
The flowers are striking and last less than a month. Look for some and stand beneath them with your ku'uipo (sweetheart).
