Poisonous Plants of Paradise

Poisonous Plants of Paradise: First Aid and Medical Treatment of Injuries from Hawaii’s Plants by Susan Scott and Craig Thomas, MD. Available at the Kapaa library (and possibly others), H 615.952 Sc under Hawaiiana.

This is a fascinating book if you’re interested in the outdoors and/or the specificities of flora in our isolated islands. Written as a medical reference, it thoroughly explains the toxicity and injury vectors of every (?) plant known to harm humans in Hawaii. Each plant is photographed and explained, including how it arrived in Hawaii and where it is usually found, then its toxins and method of injury are explained. Some readers may be interested in the description of traditional uses for each plant, though the authors always add that using these plants “as a remedy is scientifically unproven and may be harmful.”

I would put the dangerous plants in three categories:

• Decorative plants that you are unlikely to see outside someone’s yard
• Landscaping plants that you are likely to encounter in public places
• Native and naturalized plants that hikers are more likely to find on the trails

Here are some of the landscaping plants whose toxicity you should be aware of:

Oleander, Be-Still: Both of these colorful ornamentals are deadly if any part is ingested even in small quantities. Oleander leaves and be-still seeds are the most poisonous, but even dust from leaf litter can irritate the airways. Parents should definitely know these plants, never bring them in the house or yard, and keep children away from them outside. I’ll mention that be-still also grows wild in Kalalau, mauka of the trail between the river and the campsites at the beach. The book says that even using a stick from it to roast marshmallows or hot-dogs over a fire, or inhaling smoke from burning the wood can kill an adult.

Angel’s Trumpet (on the cover above), Cup of Gold: These two plants aren’t related, but they both have large, pretty and sweet-smelling flowers with similar toxins. The smell of the flowers is pleasing, but some people report mild symptoms such as headaches and dizziness just from inhaling the scent. Also, rubbing the eyes after touching the cup of gold flower or any part of the Angel’s Trumpet plant can cause pupil dilation and blurred vision for up to a week.

Plumeria: This widespread plant is mildly poisonous, ingesting leaves or flowers can irritate the digestive tract. It’s the sap that’s irritating and a few people develop rashes when they get it on their hands from breaking a branch or leaves. Children sometimes put the fragrant flowers in their mouths, but will not have any symptoms unless they ingest whole flowers.

Mango: The sap of this tree contains toxins related to poison ivy and poison oak of North America, so people who are sensitive to those might react to the leaves and skin of the fruit. Because repeated exposure increases the reaction, sensitive people should avoid contact. The fruit is safe to eat even for sensitized people once it is peeled by someone else.

Poinsetta: A professor in Hawaii in the 1940’s erroneously claimed that even one leaf was toxic, but this book claims it was a mistake. While ingesting the leaves may cause vomiting, and repeated handling may cause a mild skin rash, the authors are confident there is no toxic substance that may cause further harm.

Here is a short list of poisonous plants that hikers should be aware of, especially when taking children along:

Castor Beans: This plant grows along roadsides and disturbed areas all over the island, but the whole plant and especially the beans are deadly. The beans are very pretty and contain both castor oil and the poison ricin, known to have been used by spies for assassinations. I’ve never seen a seed lei made with these, but pricking your finger with the needle for stringing them is enough to cause severe symptoms.

Elephant Ear: These plants with leaves up to 4 feet (1+ meter) are related to taro and grow in wet, muddy conditions near streams and rivers. Like the taro plant, they contain invisible calcium oxalate crystals, tiny sharp needles inside the plant cells that irritate the skin. What I did not know is that these plants have a cell mechanism to project the crystals whenever a leaf or stalk is broken. Crushing or chewing the leaves or stems will cause a burning rash where the crystals embed in the skin or mouth. Differernt species had varying amounts of calcium oxalate. Taro leaves must be thoroughly cooked, and elephant ears were only cooked in times of famine.

Hawaiian Poppy: It’s one of the few native poisonous plants and the only prickly one. Like most poppies, the sap can irritate the skin and causes vomiting if ingested. The toxin affects the heart muscles and is deadly if enough is ingested. The only place I’ve seen this plant outside of botanical gardens is near the heiau in Kalalau Valley.

Kukui Nut: All parts of the tree contain a mild toxin that is only dangerous to small children. The sap can cause a skin rash, but most poisonings are from the nuts. Raw nuts allegedly taste good, but a single nut can cause nausea, more cause vomiting, severe cramps, and diarrhea. Hawaiians cooked the nuts and ate them as a relish, and the authors say “cooking alters the toxins and makes the nuts safe to eat in small amounts”.

Pokeberry/Coral Berry: Pokeberry is a native plant with small black berry clusters, coral berry has tiny red or orange berries. Both types of berries were used as dyes, and the plants are eaten as greens, despite the danger. The whole plant contains toxins: eating the root or undercooked leaves can be deadly to adults, and berries, especially unripe ones, can be deadly to children. I’ve only seen the red coral berry, but it grows as a weed in our garden and an invasive in Waimea Canyon and Kokee.

Silky (or Silver) Oak: This non-native tree from Australia is not related to oak. It was used in the 30’s and 40’s to reforest the eroded slopes of Waimea Canyon and the Pali-side of Kokee. Some people can get a rash from touching any part of this tree, though it only appears after 1-3 days, making identification difficult and often spreading to the eyes by contact. Sensitized people can get an asthma attack near these trees. It has a pretty flower, and even though my parents’ house used to have a specimen, I didn’t know it was potentially harmful.

Lantana: This bush with a recognizable smell might have pretty flowers, but it is an invasive weed that grows in thickets and is taking over forests on Kauai. Hikers know it because it has small curved thorns that can scratch badly, but I didn’t know the plant was poisonous. The leaves can cause a rash and are deadly to ruminants and fish. The berries are toxic when unripe, and even though some people eat ripe berries, they are potentially dangerous as well.

Mushrooms: If you haven’t learned to identify mushrooms in Hawaii, never pick and eat them here. Many poisonous and dangerous mushrooms in Hawaii look similar to edible ones on the mainland. They may even be the same mushroom, but different soil and weather conditions make them inedible. According to the book, the fatality rate for the hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms is “less than 1%,” which is very high if you think about it.

Unlike the book, these descriptions are not exhaustive. Other plants may also produce unpleasant symptoms if touched or ingested, especially in children. Avoid touching plants you are not familiar with, wash your hands as soon as possible especially if you get sap on them, and do not touch your eyes in the meantime.

If you suspect a plant poisoning of any kind, keep the plant for identification and call the poison hotline. If symptoms are present, take the patient and the plant to the nearest emergency room.

There are other ways in which plants can hurt people outdoors. A maintenance worker was killed recently on Kauai while cutting trees away from the highway. While I doubt many of you will be chainsawing, remember to be careful of rotten branches and stumps in the forest. I’ve been thrown off balance when pulling myself up on one of those, and there’s always the potential they they are holding up other branches than can fall on you.

Finally, always pay attention when you linger under coconut trees. When I was “fresh off the boat,” it hadn’t occurred to me that coconuts eventually fall off the tree, and they are most likely deadly if they hit you. Most parks and public places remove the developing coconuts, but it’s best to look up and make sure before you spread out your towl.

Sonja’s Homegrown Lilikoi Soufflé Pie

Instead of going straight to the recipe, this pie has a bit of a story. First of all, lilikoi are passion fruit, also called maracuyá or granadilla in their native South America. The Hawaiian name comes from the valley where they first went wild on Oahu. They have since invaded all islands and several varieties can be found wild in the forests all over Kaua’i:

• Yellow skin with yellow plup - the most common in Hawaii, a bit tart but still good
• Yellow skin with orangish pulp - a lucky find that is usually sweeter
• Purple skin with orangish pulp - common in South America but not on Kaua’i
• Velvety orange skin with grey pulp - has an appealing smell but a particular musty flavor (I’ve heard it called Thai lilikoi, and it looks like something called a water lemon)
• Banana Poka - The beautiful pink flower that is threatening to choke Kokee, edible but not eaten

You can just split or cut them open and eat the pulp, seeds and all. The taste is typically tart but refreshing. The ones with smooth, shiny skins get dimples as they ripen, and those are usually sweeter. The seeds are crunchy but not bitter like grape seeds. At home you can squish the juice out through a sieve if you don’t like the seeds. The juice can be diluted and sweetened to make a tropical lemonade with a characteristic perfume (also use in sangria and wine coolers).

We always used to pick lilikoi on the trails and backroads, but we don’t get out as much anymore with the baby. So we sprouted some of the seeds and planted several foot-high shoots near our fence. In the meantime, a wild plant started growing in the herb garden and quickly covered almost 30 feet (10 meters) of our hedge nearby. People will tell you that Kauai is like that, you just have a desire for something and it manifests itself for you (to find things you were not looking for, head to Sri Lanka, formerly known as the isle of Serendip).

Update: I found a website all about passion fruit, including the historical explanation of how the Spanish missionaries taught the passion of Christ based on the elements of the flower (3 nails, five wounds, and a crown of thorns), hence the name.

So we now have beautiful flowers and 4-6 lilikoi fruit every day. It’s a bit of an Easter egg hunt, looking for the smooth, egg-shaped fruit in the grass and behind the herb garden, but the kid in me really enjoys that. To find a use for the juice, my wife Sonja wanted to make a pie. We didn’t have the ingredients for a lilikoi cheesecake like you find in many restaurants, and she didn’t want just a plain pudding, so she improvised a sort of mousse by combining several recipes. It puffed up in the oven like a soufflé and then collapsed into a light golden mousse, but the result was delicious:

Finally, here is the recipe she improvised:

Second Seed of Kanaloa

During the private NTBG tour with the Sierra Club yesterday, we stopped near the nursery where they propagate native Hawaiian plants. While the gardens contain plants from all over the world, the recent focus of their work has been to grow, study, and save the plants that are endemic to Hawaii, which means those found nowhere else on earth.

To that end, NTBG researchers have combed the islands looking for specimens. As the following plaque explains, this plant was found to be a new species when it was discovered on Kaho`olawe, the small island off of Maui that was used for bombing practice by the US military for 40 years.

On previous visits to the garden, we had been told they weren’t even sure if this plant was male or female or both, putting its survival as a species at risk. On this visit, we happily learned that it had produced a seed, which had been allowed to mature. In fact, our Sierra Club guide and NTBG employee had himself picked the seed earlier that very same day. Looking at the plant some more, I noticed an oddly shaped leaf that was lighter than the others. Looking at it sideways revealed its thickness and showed it was another seed:

This is only the second seed known for this species of plant, and the staff hadn’t noticed it before. As with the first, they will wait for it to mature, pick it, plant it, and hope it grows.

Pineapple Flowers

Have you ever seen pineapple flowers before? To satisfy your horticultural curiosity:

Most people know that pineapples grow in Hawaii, it used to be a big industry on Kauai with fields and large canneries in both Kapaa and Lawai. I have read that pineapple flowers are the reason that there are no hummingbirds in Hawaii. The colorful hummingbirds would probably thrive here but the pinapple industry doesn’t want them imported because they can pollinate the flowers, which produces unattractive little brown seeds in the fruit. Pineapples are still a major crop for the Dole and Del Monte companies on the islands of Lanai and Oahu, although Del Monte has announced they are quitting because they can grow them cheaper elsewhere.

Most people have also heard you can cut the top off a pineapple and it will grow into a new plant, so I decided to try. The first thing I didn’t know is that it takes 18-24 months to grow another pineapple. We planted some tops at the other house we rented and later moved them to our new house. They survived the move, and I’ve been planting new tops whenever we get a sweet pineapple from the farmer’s market. So we now have have a prickly pineapple patch which I keep well watered. What really surprised me is that pineapple plants produce flowers and that the flowers, in my case, are purple. I always thought the flowers were internal, that the little red leaves were the flowers.

Pineapples are the only edible plant in the showy bromeliad family, and are still very decorative. In case you want to try outside the tropics, you should be able to root a pineapple top and maybe grow it indoors behind a sunny window during the winter. When you eat a pineapple, cut off the green top at the point where it meets the fruit. Peel off the little leaves at the base to expose a 1/4 inch (.5 cm) of the stalk. It may already have some root buds. Sit the top in a small glass with enough water to submerge the exposed stalk, and place on a window sill—the one in our kitchen below isn’t even very sunny. When it has as many roots as the one on the right, plant it in good soil with plenty of compost, water it twice a week and expose it to as much sunlight and warmth as possible—for two years.

Kuilau Ridge Trail

We went hiking this past Sunday on the Kuilau Ridge trail, perhaps the most underrated trail on Kauai. Big hikers rarely go there because it’s an easy out-and-back trail, less than two miles each way, with 600 feet of elevation gain in all. It starts at the Arboratum at the end of Highway 580 in Wailua, or at least the end of the pavement.

This is the furthest road inland on the East side, though only 5.5 miles inland and still 5.0 miles from Mt Waialeale. The trail goes north-east, towards the Makaleha mountains in the photo above. It’s the combination of mountain views and lush tropical forest on the ridges that makes this hike so worthwhile, rain or shine. You even see some of the native vegetation, such as the carpet of uluhe, false staghorn fern, and the large ohia lehua tree at the top of this picture:

Here’s a view of the picnic shelter at the high point of a very gradual climb. The tallest tree in this photo is a non-native Moluccan Albezia, whose green canopies and light trunks give that jungle look to all the wet areas of the island. The Makaleha mountains are close behind.

The trail is an easy road to here and then turns into a easy single track winding up and down to a bridged stream crossing. The topo map says this is the Opaekaa stream, the one that flows spectacularly over Opaekaa falls 3 miles downstream.

I recommend going all the way to the bridge before turning around, and even further for some more views if you have the time. The trail is then known as the Moalepe trail that connects to the apex of Olohena road 2.5 miles further–contrary to what the sign says, there is no closer parking area. So you can make it a much longer hike if you want, but it is not as lush and open as the Kuilau Ridge Trail, and the last mile is an unshaded rocky road.