Tuesday, March 31, 2020. Then, on March 31, 1987...

Can it be???  Thirty three years ago this evening???

This photo, by JD Griggs, then working as a photographer at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, brings back a flood of memories.  Iʻm the person in the yellow shirt, just to the left of pele.  I had a VHS video camera on my shoulder, and was recording the scene for Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.  It was early evening, March 31, 1987, thirty three years ago.  

Mr Henry Kekahuna mapped the area in great detail.  Many of his exquisite maps are housed at Bishop Museum:

Kekahuna map of Punaluʻu, June 21, 1951

The heiau at Punaluʻu is shown at the left.  The pond is at the upper middle.  Pele entered from the left (east) and departed to the right (west).  Punaluʻu, in many circles, was called Queenʻs Bath, and the photo shows steam rising off the surface of the pool.

I was procrastinating (!!!) this afternoon, trying to bring order to random thoughts and ideas, and this rose to the surface.  Iʻll likely write more about that evening in the future...

This evening here, near ma uka-most Keaʻau, a chill paka ua falls, that rain with fat plopping drops signifying that snow is falling further ma uka.  Time for a pot of pork tofu with kai choy (mustard cabbage) and hot rice.

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC
maniniowali@gmail.com

Saturday, March 28, 2020. More hibiscuses (hibisci?)

Ahhh... Attempting to settle into a schedule of sorts.  No need to wake at 3a to write because the house shaketh too much.  The need for exercise, and the accompanying loading of feel-good endorphins must be programmed too.  Wait too long the rains often come.  As they have for seemingly countless days.  Yay for those in the kaha lands of Kona ʻAkau where rains have consistently fallen since vog departed.  Forests, shrublands, and yards burgeon with greenery I hear tell.  Havenʻt been to that side of Hawaiʻi nei since...last Fall???

In mid-December I had a nūnī (new knee) installed by the extremely competent and able Dr Harpstrite, operating at Queenʻs.  Then I was off to the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific on Kuakini Street, near the mouth of the valley of Nuʻuanu.  Spent 12 days there, learning how to walk adequately, climb (and descend) stairs, bathe, etc., before coming home.  I live solo in a home with stairs, so practice was needed so I could live more or less independently.  Dear family and friends brought groceries and drove me to physical therapy sessions in Hilo.  Appreciations and gratitudes abound.

Mid-January to mid-February the bending of nūnī did not improve. It wouldnʻt go past 80 degrees, despite exercises and exhortations.  Turns out I have a LOT of scar tissue in there, and nūnī needed to undergo an MUA (Manipulation Under Anesthesia).  Bending by Dr Harpstrite while I was asleep.  He says it sounded like so much Rice Krispies and some gravel as scar tissue tore.  You can imagine.  Now, on a good day, I "holo i mua me ka MUA" [go forward with (because of) the MUA], and nūnī can bend to 120 degrees, with lots of clicking and other odd sounds.  Seems to be working well, as it should, for the close to $55K price tag.  So, so, very happy I listened to Ma, and retired with medical insurance...rather than quitting in a fit of pique... Iʻve had to pay 1% of the bill...

In short, thatʻs what Iʻve been up to...

So.  Back to those hibiscuses...  Iʻm a sucker for color, and really appreciate the multiplicity of shades of hybrid flowers.  Some, of course, are more favored than others, but the fact and possibilities of helping create new versions can bewilder.

We have endemic (only found naturally in Hawaiʻi) hibiscuses.  A specific one, maʻo hau hele (Hibiscus brackenridgei), is our State flower.  The photo below is by weedmandan, found on Flickr.

Note the stubby curved pistil.  Petals are delicate and fragile, and leaves beautifully lobed.  Maʻo hau hele is one of our brightest endemic blooms, and very useful in making dye for kapa.  According to Jill Coryell, who I mentioned yesterday, maʻo hau hele is genetically different than other hibiscuses, and so isnʻt used (by her) for hybridization.  Iʻll follow up and report back about this issue.

Some Basic Botany from Sciencestein Secondary School Science:  

Now might be a good time to go outside, pick a hibiscus if one is available, and pay attention...  Hibiscus is a bit unusual, because the pistil and the stamens grow in one fused structure.  As we saw in pua lehua last fall, the stamens and pistils are separate.

Try to be concise, Robert... As above... Anthers carry pollen.  In little sacks.  The anther, when mature, pops open, allowing pollen grains to land on sticky stigmas.  A pollen tube grows down the style, eventually reaching the ovary, where eggs are fertilized by the pollen. 

In hibiscuses, anthers open a few hours after the flower blooms, allowing the hybridizer a window of opportunity to manually cross-pollinate two different flowers, rather than letting nature take its course and letting pollination happen naturally.  Sure hope this makes sense...

Not to confuse you, but below is a cross-section of a lily.  Same parts, different arrangement.

Now.  Below is the pistil of a hibiscus from FierySunset on DeviantArt. Note that the top-most anthers have popped open, with pollen grains visible.

And another found on Flickr by RayinManila, where all the anthers are open:

But the coolest, I think, is below:  an individual anther with spiky pollen grains.

Meanwhile, at Jillʻs in Mokulēʻia... I neglected to get names for most of her hybrids... but below is the bright yellow pollen donor:

Mating completed, below you can, I hope, see yellow pollen grains stuck to the sticky orange stigma of the purple flower.

Then...wait several months for seeds to develop and ripen, plant them, and if youʻre lucky, in a year and a half, flowers will bloom.  Jill says she deems maybe 3% of plants from each cross worthy of propagating.  

Some pretties follow...

and this last is, according to Jill, "Hae Hawaiʻi", the Hawaiian flag hibiscus.  Her version is that this flower originated in Australia, and was brought to Hawaiʻi in the late 1800ʻs.  It was cultivated as part of annexation protests, much like Hae Hawaiʻi quilts were sewn during that time.

Ending with an impromptu assembly, starring Halemaʻumaʻu Beauty:

I trust that this has been a worthwhile diversion, if only for the brilliant colors.  Comments, as always, are welcome...

And yes, especially now, 

be outside...pay attention     noho i waho...a maliu

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC
maniniowali@gmail.com

March 26, 2020: Shall we???

Well, well, well...in the words of Paul McCartney in 1968:

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, life goes on, brah...

And indeed it does, on this Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole Piʻikoi Day.  

Kūhiō Day

Many of you know that I started these scribblings nearly two years ago, very shortly after our last eruptive activities began on April 30, 2018.  I was miffed at the inaccurate news coverage, and as a venting mechanism (yes, pun intended), I decided to write rather than grumble.  Iʻve kinda intended to start writing again, but being an excellent procrastinator, kept putting it off.  Till today.  

Iʻve reached my news intake limit, and canʻt veg out and watch more of Family Feud, cooking shows, The Chrisleys and other mindless what-la.  So.  Having kept a notebook for the past couple years, Iʻve decided to dig through my accumulation of wonderings and attempt to put them in some order.  

I am not intending to write anything about CoViD-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019).  Keyword:  "intending".  I imagine many are overwhelmed, or nearly so, with the multiplicity of news streams and feeds, and pray that all are paying attention to and obeying advices from reliable medical professionals such as our Lieutenant Governor Dr Josh Green, and Dr Anthony Fauci.  I am ever-grateful for my little house in the now-sodden woods, away from the cacophonies of our daily concerns and obsessions.  The pantry and freezer nearly overflow, the pahu wai (water tank) has overflowed nearly constantly all year thus far, propane was filled to 50% on Tuesday (small-kine rationing by HawaiiGas "in-case"), and Iʻm comfortable and fairly happy.

If any of you have a Topic of Interest I might have info about, let me know by sending an email to maniniowali@gmail.com  Happy to research and report, especially about natural and cultural histories.  Iʻm hoping to write a few times a week, and expect to find the discipline to do that.  Feel free to share this with family, friends, and acquaintances.

OK?

Backstory next time, but in February, with Papa and Chris, I found myself in Mokulēʻia on Oʻahu, visiting the delightful Jill Coryell, the Hibiscus Lady, and hybridizer extraordinaire.  More info on her and her works later, but I wanted to share a pic I took of one of Jillʻs selections, "Halemaʻumaʻu Beauty".  Those who have been fortunate to be with flowing pele will easily recognize the colors.  Spectacular!

Till then, be well.  As always, with aloha,

BobbyC
maniniowali@gmail.com