Canoe Plants and Kalo
Kalo (or taro) came to Hawaii in the canoes of Polynesian settlers and was cultivated as a staple of life, believed to have the greatest life force of all foods. They brought an estimated 12 varieties with them to the Hawaiian Islands and eventually cultivated hundreds of varieties of taro. They adapted it to different soil types and island climates, and cultivated it in the uplands as high as 4,000 feet, as well as in marshy lowlands irrigated by streams. Offshoots of a mature taro plant are known as ‘ohā, which grow in a circle around the parent plant. The ‘ohā eventually grow into mature taro plants producing their own circle of ‘ohā. This ever-widening circle of taro plants is the symbolism behind the Hawaiian family and the word ‘ohana.
Kalo (Colocasia esculenta) was the primary food of the Hawai`i people, supplemented by breadfruit (`ulu), sweet potato (`uala), greens, fruit, fish, and seaweed (limu). This plant can reach heights of more than 3 feet, and has large heart-shaped leaves (luau) that rise in a cluster from an underground corm, which is similar to a large potato. The taro plant’s large leaves usually grow to about 1 to 2 feet long by 8 to 18 inches wide, and are light green to dark green to purple, and sometimes streaked with white. The corm varies in color from bluish lavender, purple, red, white, or yellow, and in ancient Hawai‘i, red and purple poi were reserved for royalty (ali‘i).
Great farming skills were needed to terrace, cultivate, and irrigate the land along streams. Farmers of wetland taro built walls of earth reinforced with stone to enclose a lo`i (pond field). Then, using well-designed canals (‘auwai), water was diverted from the stream into the terraced areas where taro was grown, and channeled back into the stream. Along the banks of the lo`i they planted mai`a (banana), ko (sugarcane), ki (ti), and wauke (paper mulberry). In the ponds, several varieties of fish were grown, such as `awa, `ama`ama, o`opu, and aholehole. This concentrated effort meant an acre of wet lo`i could produce 3 to 5 tons of food per year.
All parts of this vital plant were eaten. The leaves (lu`au) are rich in vitamins A, B, C, as well as calcium, iron, phosphorus, thiamine, and riboflavin. The cooked corm and poi have fewer vitamins, but are an excellent source of carbohydrates. And the huli, or top of the corm, could be replanted making taro a recyclable plant. Kalo ‘apu is the Hawaiian term for taro used medicinally. Poi was used to settle the stomach, or mixed with noni fruit and applied topically for boils, or mixed with pia (arrowroot starch) and taken for diarrhea. Undiluted poi was sometimes used as a poultice on infected sores, or a piece of taro stem (haha) was touched to the skin for a sting, or to stop bleeding and begin the healing process. Taro is often fed to babies as their first whole and natural healthy food, as well as to the elderly, for its ease of digestion and high vitamin content.
