Native plantings at the Ranch

Our farm team has been hard at work planting windbreaks with native species across the farm. These plantings will help us protect our crops from the wind, and contribute to our goal of helping protect and reestablish native Hawaiian plants. We would like to send a big thanks to our friends at Native Nursery, LLC on Maui for providing us with the plants. 

Our plantings include:

1. Koki’o ke’o ke’o Hibiscus waimeae
2. Koai’a Acacia koa var. koaia
3. Milo Thespesia moluccana
4. ‘A’a li’i Dodonaeae viscosa
5. Alahe’e Psydrax odorata

What we now call native Hawaiian plants arrived on the islands by wind, ocean currents, and birds. Native plants are either indigenous (occurring naturally in Hawaiʻi and other locations) or endemic (found only in the Hawaiian Islands). It is significant to note that the majority of native Hawaiian plants are endemic.

In Laʻau Hawaiʻi: Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Plants, author Isabella Abbott explains, “Hawaiian culture depends on plants and still depends on them today. Recreating the past is impossible, but it is within our reach to stem the loss of both cultural information and traditional plants to promote genuine continuity with old Hawaiʻi.”