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Natural History

False Staghorn, Uluhe
(Dicranopteris spp.)


False staghorn fern is a stiff, wiry fern, usually with foot-long apple-green fronds that fork repeatedly with two single leaflets at each fork. It is very easy to identify and grows mostly below the 4,000 foot elevation.

Masses of false staghorn fern blanket ridges, slopes and road cuts of the islands, often forming thickets through which intrepid hikers must hack their way. Uluhe teaches caution and perseverance, it is said. It is impossible to walk through the thick, scratchy, wire-like mesh made by the dried fronds under the green leaves without suffering numerous pokes and scratches. Sometimes the thickets cover over deep holes or gullies as well and they make it hard to see where solid ground ends at the edge of a ridge. It is also one of the few native Hawaiian plants that could be called a pest.

As the first tough native colonizers of fresh mud slides and ridges, uluhe is a natural erosion controller. In 1933, a forester on Oahu, C. S. Judd, decided to test how quickly uluhe covered fresh landslides. He removed it from an experimental patch of steeply graded land and watched. Fresh ferns immediately began to invade it from the edges at a rate of three to seven feet per year. Where the ferns invaded, they quickly formed the characteristic mounds and Judd noted that his plot showed no signs of erosion as a result.

Judd also pointed out, however, that the large amounts of brittle debris below the uluhe stands could become a fire hazard. Foresters sometimes have to fight fires on sunny ridges in otherwise wet areas because once a fire starts, the dry tangle of dead leaves and stems feed the fire and help it spread over a large area. During drought times, the danger of a rapidly spreading wild-fire among the wilted and dried dense thickets greatly increases.
The uluhe belong to a family of ferns that have long, wiry, creeping stems which give rise at intervals to upright fronds. Botanist Otto Degener says the fronds these ferns produce are different from the fronds of other ferns because they have numerous dormant buds. These buds are located between each fork in the fronds. When the plants grow in open country, the buds seldom develop further and the fronds rarely grow higher than two or three feet. However, when shrubs and trees shade the plants, the buds quickly awaken into growth to produce complicated frond systems that climb over the obstruction to a height of ten or even fifteen feet. Even shrubs and trees of medium size may be covered by the climbing fronds and weakened or even killed. (Hawaiians called these giants uluhe lau nui, "uluhe with big leaves.")

It is extremely difficult to eradicate the fern. Thoroughly clearing the ground of the plant is problematic since any bit of the brittle rootstock that remains in the soil can spring up and become a sizeable patch in a relatively short time. One thing that does kill off the fern is bamboo introduced into artificially cleared areas made in the thickets.

Bamboo is a giant grass that soon produce subterranean branches that spread out in all directions whether the ferns grow over them or not. From these branches sharp shoots soon arise which, instead of spreading, press straight up through all obstacles before producing a dense crowd of blades or leaves. The dense shade the bamboo produces kills off the uluhe.

(Nobody has any suggestions for what to do to get rid of the bamboo once it has conquered the uluhe and heads on out to take over the rest of the native forest.)

The uluhe thickets are home for an unusual damselfly which resembles a small dragonfly. Instead of developing in streams and ponds, the nymphs of this species, which is endemic to Hawaii, develop in the moist earth and leaf mulch under the ferns. They have adapted to living and breathing in air.
On Kauai, the thickets also hide the nests of an endangered species of seabirds, the Nevell's Shearwater (Puffinus newellii). It is one of the very few remaining seabirds breeding on Hawaii's main islands. (Most of the other seabirds have been exterminated by dogs, mongooses and rats invading their nests and eating them.) Newell's shearwater is a type of petrel and is related to the albatross. It burrows into the soft earth under the uluhe on the steep mountain slopes of Kauai. They were discovered in the 1980's and the State Division of Forestry and Wildlife started a program to encourage residents to rescue young fledglings each fall. As they come out of their burrows at night, the young birds get disoriented by the bright lights of resorts, playing fields and highways. The birds are rescued and released in more appropriate areas.

In spite of the unusual structure of the fronds, the uluhe is one of the most primitive ferns in the Hawaiian Islands. If you look at the brownish woolly layer on the underside of some of the older leaves, you will often see irregularly scattered small round fruit dots known as "sori". Each is composed of about a dozen spherical, stalked bodies called "sporangia." The sporangia enclose microscopic spores which are finally shed into the air as a fine yellow dust.

Spores that fall into a moist area may germinate and develop into small, green, often heart-shaped sheets of cells called "gametophytes "or "porthole", each a fraction of an inch in length. These eventually produce sperm and eggs. From their union the asexual spore-producing generation that we recognize as a fern then grows.

In more highly evolved ferns, the sporangia are not openly exposed to danger in this way. In tree ferns and maidenhair ferns the sporangia are protected by an outgrowth from the margins of the fern. Other ferns have developed their own means of protection.

At one time, it was believed that the uluhe were unique to Hawaii. However, similar plants have been found on other Pacific Islands as well as South America and the West Indies.

In ancient times, the uluhe had few uses. The fronds were too brittle for weaving and there were other materials that made better roof thatching. However, an infusion of the fronds made a bitter-tasting laxative. The farmers in the uplands of Ka'u on the Big Island were teased because they were said to use the fern fronds to line pits they dug for ripening bananas. Today the beautiful, tightly coiled fiddle-heads of the fern are sometimes used in braided haku lei.
 

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Arts & Culture

Safe Haven

Between the 7 and 8 mile markers outside Wailuku and heading towards Lahaina on the Honoapiilani Highway, past Maalaea Harbor, there's a road on the left leading to McGregor Point and Lighthouse...well...beacon, actually. It's a good place to watch the sun set or pick out whales cavorting in the Auau Channel, although the Papawai Point Lookout, further down the road, appears in many of the guidebooks. (The Papawai Point Lookout is certainly a safer alternative since it is easier to park there and to pull out of the lookout area into the traffic.)

In the late 1800's Captain Daniel McGregor ran inter-island ships engaged in what was called the "Ko'olau trade." Ko'olau is the name for the windward side of any Hawaiian island. The inter-island traders who picked up and delivered supplies at the ship landings along the windward side routinely faced some of the most dangerous sailing conditions.

One stormy night, McGregor was heading for the Ma'alaea landing, running along the sea cliffs to the southwest of the bay. As he neared the bay, the captain knew he was not going to be able to anchor his ship at the usual place for it was too exposed. He was determined to make a safe landing.

In the slashing rain, he stationed crewmen off bow, port, and starboard to take soundings continuously as the vessel slowly made its way through the dark night. Finally, about two or three o'clock in the early morning, unable to see and groping along, guided only by the depth of the water under the hull, Captain McGregor ordered anchors dropped when the wind seemed to let up and the depth grew ominously shallow. The weary, rain-soaked crew slept the few remaining hours until dawn.

With first light, captain and crew realized what an excellent small cove they had blindly found. They had landed only a stone's throw away from a high sea cliff. Within the shelter of the cliff, the ship had found a quiet spot, just barely clearing the bottom.

The emergency anchorage soon became known as "McGregor Point." Other ships began using the same spot, taking advantage of its protection from the powerful Maalaea winds. It was a favorite stopping place for the steamers of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company as well as for other vessels.
It became so popular that a wharf was constructed at the landing and McGregor Point became an official government landing. For a while, the inter-island ships used it more than the one in Ma'alaea Bay.

The Point was not exempt from tsunami, however. In August, 1906, seismic wave action seriously damaged the wharf and destroyed the Maalaea Wharf further up the coast. (The surf was said to be the heaviest ever known in these waters.) Afterwards, the wharf at McGregor was repaired and lasted for a number of years.

The wharf was eventually dismantled. The ruins of the landing below the Federal Aviation Agency blockhouse include only a few concrete foundations and a cleat embedded in the rock. The McGregor Point Light was established in 1906 to replace the discontinued Maalaea Bay Light. The 20 foot concrete tower, shaped like a pyramid, is on a site 48 feet above sea level.
The shoreline on either side of the point has a number of small unimproved beaches. There is a dive site off the former landing and to the northeast, along the low sea cliffs, is a surf spot called "Lighthouse."
 

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon
 

STANDARD: Perhaps it's time for a reality check.
BRADDAH-NICS: Braddah...what'chu talking? 'As how!....

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: I'm not really interested in the gossip. I already know it.
BRADDAH-NICS: No need tell me somet'ing somebody wen' tell you. I already know already.

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: All of this negativity is really unproductive.
BRADDAH-NICS: Some humbug, dis kine hakaka!

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Local Grinds

Oven Roasted Kalua Pig
 

Ingredients:

Procedure:

Place pork fat side up in a roasting pan or deep casserole type dish. Mix water and liquid smoke; pour
over pork. Sprinkle with salt. Cover and roast in oven at 400 degrees F for three hours.
Remove from pan and shred.
Makes six servings.

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Spotlight On…

Sweetheart Rock - Lanai

A princess of Maui, quite the exquisite beauty, captured by a young Lanai warrior and taken as his wife.
Consumed by the fear of losing the beauty to another man, the warrior frantically searched for ways to keep her out of sight. And then it came to him: imprison her in a secluded cave within a rocky spire off the Lanai coast.
And so it was done.

With his wife confined in a sea cave, the warrior felt relief. Secured by his madness, the warrior left for a time - a decision which proved to be a fatal mistake . . . For during his time away, the calm coastal waters raged, rising up to flood the cave and free it's prisoner from her mortal life. Sensing the change in the waters, the warrior rushed back only to find the limp body of his beloved princess. Overcome by grief, the warrior asked the gods for strength, and brought his wife to the top of the spire, where he entombed her to eternal rest. Saying goodbye, the warrior then leapt off the edge, plummeting to his death.

And so the legend goes . . .


The spire and cave where this tragic play is said to have taken place has since become known as "Sweetheart Rock".
Located off the coast of Lanai, Sweetheart Rock protrudes 80 feet above the surface of the sea, with a 70 foot plateau at the top. Studies by archaeologists show no basis of reality to the legend, but has revealed a Bird Heiau where the "Princess Tomb" is said to lie. Still a sanctuary to feathered wildlife of many types, a view of the Sweetheart Rock from the Lanai coast can be obtained via a tide pool dotted trail leading to an overhang allowing breathtaking views of the spire from the top down.

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