HINANO HUNTING

Hinano Hunting on Kauai

                Driving down to Hanalei, Gil noticed something white in the hala trees on the highway and asked if it was hinano (hee-nah-noh)?  Sure enough it was blooming and the next day I went hunting. 

                The hala tree was very important in the Polynesian culture and the voyagers brought plant starts with them when they traveled.  That was in addition to the prepared leaves stored in large wheel like bundles – essential to a voyaging canoe as the material used to make the sails.

Dried hala leaves were used to make mats, sails and containers

                It is still commonly used today for mats (Hawaiian carpeting) and many other crafts.  On the living trees we often see the fruit, sometimes confusing to tourists who think it could be a pineapple.  This fruit is from the female pandanus, screwpine or hala tree. 

Green hala fruit

 

Ripe hala fruit, each "key" looks like old fashioned candy corn about 3" long!

 

                So what is this hinano I went hunting for?  Not the Tahitian beer by the same name. There are male hala trees separate from the females above - they all look alike.  We had heard that these male "flowers" (actually the bracts that hold pollen) were collected and plaited into very fine mats for royalty because they smelled so good. 

               The hunt was on.  I got pictures of the ones by the highway but they were too high to smell.  I remembered many hala along the path to my favorite snorkel beach and headed down (no snorkeling due to high surf). Sure enough, there were many beautiful male plants on display, again out of reach. 

 Hala looming below me, out of reach, out of range for my nose

All the way down the path and along the beach I finally found a male flower at eye level.  Not wanting to disturb the process, I took 3-4 pieces of the bract and one chunk of the pollen.  I got home feeling like a successful huntress with my game.  It was in the kitchen for several days and the whole house was fragrant from it.  Maybe only the royalty got to sleep under the fragrant mats but somebody made them and enjoyed the process, ever grateful for nature’s bounty. 

HINANO

               Just a few days later, all the bracts on the trees had browned, blending into the tree once more.