Natural History
ANTHURIUM, FLAMINGO FLOWER
(Anthurium andraeanum)
A native of tropical America and the Caribbean islands, the anthurium has been a most popular exotic flower since its introduction by Samuel M. Damon, in 1889. Damon visited Queen Elizabeth at her Diamond Jubilee and saw the plants in England during his visit. While at the Jubilee he asked the Edinbergh University botany department to help choose an anthurium and a gardener, Donald MacIntyre, to help him grow his flowers at Moanalua, his estate on Oahu.
 Anthuriums are members of the Arum family. Their cousins include jack-in-the-pulpit, calla lilies, split-leafed philodendron and taro. More than 700 species exist in the world. Like their cousins in the Arum family, anthuriums do contain bundles of needlelike calcium oxalate crystals, a non-absorbable salt of oxalic acid. In some of these plants, the concentration of these crystals can make ingestion of the plant quite harmful, causing extreme swelling and redness. However, the concentration of calcium oxalate crystals in the leaves and the stems of the anthurium is apparently minimal and the toxicity of anthurium plants is a matter of debate among researchers of such things. Some researchers do not list anthuriums as toxic; some do.
The name for the plant comes from the Latin word, “anthos,” meaning flower and “oura,” meaning “tail,” a reference to the numerous tiny true flowers on the tail-like spadix that arises from the middle of a heart-shaped bract called the spathe.
The brilliantly colored, bract is thick, waxen, feels like shiny oilcloth, and looks artificial. The bracts range in color from pure white, shell pink, pink-red, deep red, bright red, orange, green, and even mauve. The true flowers on the yellow or greenish colored spadix are hardly noticeable. Called “the love flower,” the anthurium is now synonymous with Hawaii and with Valentine’s Day. The waxen, brilliantly colored flowers will last as long as three weeks if cut in its prime. They are commonly used in tropical flower bouquets.
The plants are a small herbaceous evergreen plant that usually grows to about three feet in height. Shiny, foot-long, leathery, heart-shaped leaves unfurl from tops of very slender rod-like stems. The plant is a climber by nature and at the base of the stem of each leaf a fleshy root develops which will grow fine feeder roots when it comes in contact with the growing medium. If these aerial roots don’t reach the medium, they soon dry, harden and stop growing. The leaves are large and nicely veined. It is said that the larger the leaves the larger the flowers will be. One new anthurium ‘flower” sprouts with each leaf, it is said. Ideally, healthy plants should produce about eight flowers during the year.
 All anthuriums are horticultural hybrids of the wild green species native to tropical American rain forests. When colored anthuriums age on the plant, they usually turn green. Hybridization is accomplished by hand pollination. The seeds are monitored and the plants carefully nurtured for two or three years. Seeded anthuriums have swollen cones in green and the seeds fall out like kernels on a cob of corn.
Commercial production of the cut anthurium flowers has become an international, multi-million dollar industry. The plants require year-round warmth, filtered sunlight and high humidity. If they are planted in deep shade, the plants do not bloom.
The University of Hawaii Experiment Station has spent years studying the various media in which the flowers grow. In the large University lath-house, anthuriums have been planted in volcanic cinders, coffee parchment (the seed coating that encloses two coffee seeds), bagasse (residue from sugar cane processing), macadamia nut hulls, tree fern fiber, taro peel, wood shavings, plain soil, plain black sand and leaf mold. All of this effort helps the commercial anthurium growers produce an average of 20,000-plus plants per acre.
Anthuriums are also popular in home greenhouses and in gardens where massed plantings provide color all year long. One expert home grower says that in the past, commercial anthurium mixes were quite expensive and sometimes hard to get, but home growers are great improvisers, looking for inexpensive ways to grow the plants they buy from nurseries. The plants multiply quite easily and are not bothered by too many pests. Unusual specimen anthurium plants flourish in many island gardens, the pride and joy of their owners.
The variety name “andreanum,” which was one of the first anthuriums to make it to Hawaii, was named for Edouard F. Andre (1840 to 1911), who was a botanist and horticultural editor in Europe. This plant was discovered in the wilds of Colombia by Jose J. Triana who sent specimens to Andre in 1876. Spanish-speaking people know the anthurium as “capotillo colorado” (the little red cape).
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Arts & Culture
PUAMANA
Puamana was the family home of Annie Kahalepouli Bastel Shaw Farden and Charles Kekua Farden. Their large two-story home, built in 1915, was located on Front Street. It had six bedrooms and two baths. The land was originally awarded to Anna Keohokalole, a Hawaiian chiefess, as Land Court Award 5874. At the time of the award, the land was already named “Puamana.” The name was variously translated. “Pua” can mean “flower or blossom” or “to issue or emerge” or “children or descendants.” The word “mana” can mean “supernatural or divine power.” The combination of the two words can obviously hold many meanings.
 Anna Keohokalole was the wife of another chief, Caesar Kapaakea. Among their six children were the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaii. After her death Keohokalole’s remaining lands were divided among her surviving children, David (later King David Kalakaua), Lili’u (Queen Liliuokalani), Miriam (Princess Miriam Likelike) and William (Prince William Pitt Leleiohoku II). David received Puamana along with other lands. Upon his death, title went to his widow Kapiolani. She in turn deeded the land to her nephews Jonah Kalaniana’ole and David Kawananakoa, who incorporated as the Kapi’olani Estate.
When the Fardens purchased the half-acre lot from the Kapiolani Estate, Puamana was still the name of the property. The Fardens agreed to keep the name for their home, translating it to mean “the home that holds its members close.” For them it was an expression of the love that was always shared among the family members. Along the sea wall fronting the home, each of the twelve children had planted and cared for his or her special coconut tree. Other trees were planted in the same area, but the children knew which ones were theirs.
Puamana is best known to Hawaii’s residents through the song of the same name. Irmgard Farden Aluli. Aunty Irmgard composed the music for the song in 1935. At the time she was teaching on Molokai and had returned to Puamana for a visit. She sat down at the family piano and found herself playing a new tune. She liked it and decided it would be a song for their home. The creation of the lyrics for the song was the result of a united effort of Aunty Irmgard and the rest of the family. The translation of the verses into Hawaiian was done by her father. The song quickly became a Hawaiian classic.
Aunty Irmgard and all of her brothers and sisters grew up to become singers, composers and instrumentalists with a range of skills. It ran in the family. Both parents were musical and the Farden family’s life was filled with formal training and performances at family gatherings. Aunty Irmgard composed hundreds of songs, including “Puamana,” “The Boy from Laupahoehoe”, and “E Maliu Mai,” since the 1930’s. Emma Kapiolani Farden Sharpe, Aunty Irmgard’s sister, was a well-known hula performer and best-beloved kumu hula (dance master/teacher) on Maui. For many years, Aunty Emma would call her siblings together to help her put on an annual ‘uniki, a graduation, for her students. Aunty Emma’s greatest contribution to the Lahaina music scene was the establishment, in the 1970’s, of the Hawaiian cultural festival, the Na Mele O Maui, which replaced the Lahaina Whaling Spree when the Spree degenerated into a rowdy brawl of a drunken street party and wore out its welcome in the town.
 The entire Farden family was honored in 1977 by the Hawaiian Music Foundation. The Foundation recognized their achievements by presenting them with the Hawaii Aloha Award for their outstanding contribution to the development of Hawaiian music. It was the first time the award was ever presented to an entire family. . After the death of the elder Fardens, Puamana was leased and eventually sold. The original building was torn down and a new two-story house took its place.
Puamana Beach Park (about two miles before you enter Lahaina from the east) is located next to the Puamana resort complex at the south end of Front Street. Both are named after the Farden’s old residence. The old name for the park area was Waianukole, literally, “red [with] cold water.” The shoreline fronting the resort complex was part of the ahupua’a called “Makila,” which literally means “needle.” During the 1960’s surfers named the beach and its offshore break “Hot Sands” because the heat of the sand was so intense that they ended up running with their surfboards across the white sand beach. Since the construction of the resort complex, however, the shoreline has most commonly been known as Puamana Beach.
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Spotlight On….. Lahaina
Lahaina means "merciless sun," and it is one of the hottest spots on the island. Lahaina has always been one of the centers of activity on Maui. Maui's King Kahekili called Lahaina home until King Kamehameha defeated him in the late 1700s. Kamehameha set up his own power base in Lahaina, which remained the seat of Hawaiian power until Kamehameha III moved his capitol to Honolulu in the mid-1800s.
 It was not until the tourist boom and the resorts were developed in Kaanapali during the mid-1960's that Lahaina town, which had become a virtual ghost town after the whaling fleet stopped coming, began to bustle again. Restoration of the town's old wooden buildings proceeded apace and the town has been declared a National Historical Landmark.
With the revitalization of the town came a colony of artists and craftspeople, and a blossoming of art galleries heavy on marine themes, boutiques, great eating places and sophisticated night-spots as well as a proliferation of time-share salesmen, kiosks touting various activities of one sort or another, and shops filled with touristy gimcracks and t-shirts blazoned with slogans that quickly become cliches.
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Braddah-Nics Lexicon
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