Canoe Plants and Ape
The canoe plant `ape (pronounced ah-pay) resembles a large taro plant. One distinct difference between `ape and taro (kalo) is that the leaves of `ape point upward while the leaves of taro usually point downward. Sometimes called Elephant’s Ear, the larger heart-shaped leaves of `ape are light green and shiny (sometimes with patches of white) and can grow up to four feet long and two feet wide. The stems may be green or a whitish color and reach up to four feet long, raising the plant to as high as eight feet.
The inflorescence is enclosed within a leaf-like spathe prior to opening. The inflorescences last for two nights and are protogynous in some species, changing from the pistillate phase that attracts pollinators on the night it opens, to a staminate phase on the second night, when pollen is shed. When the inflorescence opens it produces heat and releases a sweet scent attracting its pollinators. On the second night, the pollinators leave the tube and walk over the staminate flowers, getting covered with pollen and then fly to another recently opened inflorescence nearby.
`Ape was not a favored food, and was eaten only in times of famine when other foods were scarce. Like taro, which it is related to, the underground stem and corm contain calcium oxalate, which can injure internal human tissue, and must be cooked in order to be eaten. It also had medicinal uses. The juice from freshly cut stems were placed on the skin to sooth itchy stinging plants such as ko (sugar cane) and nettle. The meat of the corm was used to treat burns and broken skin. One medicinal use of ‘ape involved wrapping a person in the leaves of the plant to induce sweating (hou), and the bitter sap of `ape was expected to frighten away negative spirits.
`Ape was also used as an ingredient in dye. Bruised leaves and stalks were mixed with black lo‘i mud and used for the decorations on ipu (gourds). Decorative motifs were cut into the gourd’s outer surface, and then the dye mixture was placed inside the gourd to seep through and color the cut areas.
