| Natural History
BAMBOO, 'OHE
(Schizostachyum glaucifolium)
(Syn. Bambusa glaucifolia)
 Bamboo was a latecomer to Hawaii. Although approximately 1,000 species occur naturally on every continent except Europe, with several species native to the Pacific, apparently it didn't reach Hawaii without human help. The same types of bamboo occur in Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti and the Marquesas and experts believe its sprouts were carefully carried to Hawaii by Polynesian voyagers.
Certain bamboo stands in the Hawaiian Islands are renowned for their antiquity. According to legend, Kane and Kanaloa reportedly planted some of today's "historical groves" and the goddess Hina also transported bamboo from faraway Kahiki, planting it beside her home. There is a legend that Hina's original grove was located on Maui's windward coast at Waikamoi. According to the legend, when baby Maui saw the plant he reached for it and the short stem cut his hand. As a result, Hina turned the bamboo inside out so the sharp part of the bamboo is inside the stem and the outside is round and smooth, as it is today.
In all probability, 'ohe Hawai'i (Hawaiian bamboo) which grows wild on lower mountain slopes and in sheltered valleys is an Asian species also found on other Pacific islands. Hawaii's particular bamboo flourishes best in the warm, moist forests, perpetuating itself by underground runners that sprout near or distant from the parent plant. (Bamboo rarely reproduces itself by seeds.)
As a species, bamboo is generally a very rapid grower. Pointing up the swiftness of bamboo's growth is another legend. Laukia'i'ai, a guardian of food, wanted to find her father so she sat down on a piece of bamboo. It grew and grew. Finally it bent over and set her down in a place far away. There she found her father.
Bamboo are giant grasses. Each species flowers after a fixed number of years and huge sugarcane-like flower heads develop, laden with seeds. The entire grove then dies. It takes years before the few underground runners that survived along with sprouted seeds fill out the original grove again. According to Japanese experts, in some species ALL plants of the same species flower simultaneously wherever they grow.
Today, extensive areas of bamboo can still be seen by motorists on the Hana Highway. (Botanists tell us that this is not the species introduced by later Polynesians.) Other famous groves are at Hilo and along the Puna coast on the Big Island as well as near Kaunakakai on Molokai.
Ancient Hawaiians used bamboo but never realized its potential as fully as the Asians who had lived with it for centuries. Its degree of use depended on the amount available and its proximity to villages. Bamboo became water containers, fishing poles, irrigation troughs, knives, design stamps for decorating kapa (bark cloth) and musical instruments. Long pieces of bamboo became the frame for a house.
Hawaiians carried water in tubes with a closed end. Bamboo, cut in halfway down its long sides with the nodes cut out, were used for water pipes to irrigate crops. Meanwhile, thin sticks of bamboo could be used to make lines with dye on the kapa. These drawing sticks were called "lapa." The Hawaiians also carved designs into some flat, wider bamboo sticks, which were then dipped into the dye and used as stamps to make patterns on the kapa. Bamboo stamps were called "'ohe kapala." Both the lapa and the 'ohe kapala were kept in a case also made of bamboo.
The long, narrow holua racing sleds needed a framework fashioned from bamboo and lashed sennit cordage, to which runners of hard wood were attached. Sometimes thin rods of bamboo were used as whip sticks for a dart game using sugar-cane darts, and slivers of bamboo were used to make the points and stems of finger tops made of kuku'i.
Lama lamps were lengths of bamboo filled with kukui nut kernels, which burned down one after the other. This type of lamp produced a very smoky light, and there was always the danger that the bamboo container would catch on fire as well.
Sometimes bowl-makers would use green bamboo leaves and kukui oil to do the final polishing on wooden bowls or use the leaves to remove the hairy husk fibers from the outsides of coconut shells.
Ancient Hawaiians appreciated bamboo's ability to hold a sharp cutting edge. Because they lacked iron and large clam shells, obliquely cut bamboo provided the best raw materials for daggers and knives to cut soft materials. Very thin slivers of bamboo became needles to string kukui nuts for candles. The slivers were also used in tattooing.
Medicinally, slivers of sharp bamboo performed circumcision rites and the bamboo ashes were used in concoctions for curing skin sores. Some people considered bamboo a manifestation (kino lau) of the god Kane, the life-giver, and believed the bamboo leaves protect one from evil. To activate this quality, the leaves were placed under a suffering patient's sleeping mat. A syringe made from a joint of bamboo was sometimes used to administer enemas made of warmed seawater infused with the sap from wild 'ilima or from the green kuku'i fruit.
Bamboo musical instruments are still used today. The pu'ili or bamboo rattles are unique to Hawaii. They consist of a section of bamboo from which one crosspiece is removed and the hollow section beyond it split into numerous fine divisions. When shaken or struck, these spaghetti-like strands rattle against one another, producing, as Emerson described, "a breezy, rustling sound." Depending on the nature of the hula, the rattles were shaken lightly, clashed forcefully or even tossed deftly between partners. They are most often used for seated hula, but sometimes appear in standing hula as well.
The 'ohe ka'eke'eke is a length of thin-walled bamboo, entirely hollow except for a node at the bottom of the tube. It is sounded by striking the bottom of the tube on the ground. The tone varies depending on the dimension of the tube. Usually two or more 'ohe ka'eke'eke is used to produce varying rhythmic tones. There is some disagreement about whether this instrument was of pre-contact origin. At least one scholar thinks they were brought from Fiji in historic times. However, they are instruments now used for hula kahiko.
 Nose flutes ('ohe or hano), once lost in Hawaii, are again in use. These flutes are made from a short piece of bamboo (usually one node and a length of internode). The two or three holes of this narrow flute are stopped by the fingers of one hand while being supported by the fingers of the other hand and blown with regulated breath through one's nostrils. The musical range of the nose flute is limited, but when played well, a captivating, whispery, ethereal music can be evoked that speaks of wild forests and windy mountain fastnesses.
One other musical instrument, rarely used today, is the 'ohe kani, an instrument that is similar to the Western Jew's harp. A slot was cut through a flat piece of wood. Into this holder a small sliver of 'ohe was inserted. One end of the sliver was attached while the other was allowed to vibrate. The holder was pressed against the lips and a sound was produced by projecting the breath through the slot in a speaking or singing tone.
Over the last century, Asians have overlain a richness to bamboo's Hawaiian heritage by superimposing cultural uses and beliefs of their own.
Among the Asians over 1,000 uses have been tabulated for this remarkable, fast-growing grass, including an astonishing array of practical and esthetic uses: food, housing, transport, medicine, games, weapons, art and ornamentation. Bamboo stems are extensively used in building: whole as posts, split in half for roofing tiles, and split finely and woven into flexible walls. They are also used for bridges, pipes, vessels, flower pots, gutters, floats, beehives, canes, flutes masts, furniture, utensils, agricultural tools, ladders, ornaments, toys, fishing poles, split for mats, screens, baskets, fans, hats, umbrellas, ropes, brushes and paper, as well as for jewelry and other ornamentation.
Almost every temple in Asia houses bamboo brushwork inside and living bamboo outside. In Japan it is associated with high spiritual values. The haunting notes of the clarinet-shaped shakuhachi flute are supposed to transport you to high spiritual realms and bamboo is a traditional New Year symbol of happiness.
After 1900, especially during World War II, when all imported supplies were restricted, Islanders of many backgrounds used bamboo as woven hats, kitchen utensils, houses and canoe outriggers.
Foresters planted bamboo to prevent soil erosion and maintain watersheds and, at one point, businessmen contemplated making paper with it. Almost any lowland road in the wet windward regions of all the larger islands eventually passes through groves of bamboo. The upper limit in elevation for bamboo growth is about 900 feet. Hikers often find small groves tucked away in moist valleys and almost all botanical gardens and arboretums grow several species.
Extensive groves tend to be destructive to the surrounding vegetation, crowding out everything else in their relentless expansion. However, in small doses, bamboo plantings do prevent erosion on steep slopes. In fact, ornamental bamboos are commonly used today in resort and other commercial landscaping.
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| Spotlight On…
 Kaanapali
Four miles west of Lahaina, just off Honoapiilani Highway, is Kaanapali, Hawaii's first master-planned family resort. Mid-rise hotels line nearly three miles of sandy beaches, linked by a network of landscaped parkways and jungle-lush plantings. Golf courses wrap around the slope between beachfront and hillside properties.
This area, with its resorts and beautiful beaches that have unparalleled views of neighboring Molokai and Lanai islands, was once part of a sugar plantation owned and operated by Pioneer Mill Company. At Black Rock, a volcanic spatter cone that divides Kaanapali Bay in half, was a wharf from which sugar, molasses, canned pineapple, fuel and various other products were shipped. At one time there were two large storage tanks, one for molasses and the other for fuel, a sugar warehouse, housing for wharf employees and a plant that turned pineapple cores and skins into cattle feed.
Just inland of the wharf and the sugar plantations was an old racetrack used on weekends and holidays. It is now a commercial airport for small aircraft.
Soon after Hawaii became America's 50th state in 1959, people from the Mainland discovered Maui and began visiting the island and building vacation homes. As more and more people flocked to the island, tourism was seen as the panacea that would waken the sluggish local economy. Beautiful beaches and balmy weather became assets to be developed.
AmFac (American Factors), a company that had existed since the days of the sugar moguls, owned much of the beachfront property in Kaanapali, and they quickly realized the potential of their holdings. A single low-rise hotel, the Royal Lahaina Resort, and golf course was built before Kaanapali Bay. Shortly afterwards another hotel, the Sheraton, was built on Black Rock. These two hotels were the forerunners of the Kaanapali complex, a line of side-by-side high-rises.
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