The Mighty Haole!!! (haole koa that is)

I woke up thinking about a conversation I had yesterday with my neighbor, Kent - realizing that my whole neighborhood, possibly most of the island, my country, the planet!!!  has been brainwashed into believing that it is not possible to have a nice yard without using dangerous chemicals like Round- Up to kill weeds.  In my neighbor’s defense, I must let you in on the embarrassing details of my story. My household had grown very accustomed to the ‘natural look’ of a very unkempt front yard, vastly overgrown with grasses and weeds that had become small trees over the course of several months. This natural look was very similar to what the side of Diamondhead looks like – beautiful when in context with the mountain, but not so attractive in the context of the highly manicured lawns of my Kahala neighborhood.  My kind neighbor who claims to love yard work had volunteered himself one morning to clean up our yard for us as a nice surprise.  My housemate had come home from work to this embarrassing but thoughtful surprise in action, feeling obligated to help him in this long avoided chore.  Later that day, I had the opportunity to meet him. He was busy admiring his work on my yard while cleaning up the last bits of green rubbish from our formerly hidden sidewalk. We spoke of what to plant in place of the shrubbery of weeds that were now missing and he generously offered his advise. The neighbor literally said that it is futile to plant anything in the yard unless I first treat the whole yard, to treat the soil with poison, Monsanto’s Round-Up. Shocked and appalled, I said that it was against my religion – not wanting to go into a huge discussion of the ill effects of Round-Up after he had just spent his free time cleaning up my yard. If he only knew that just a few weeks ago I had participated in the March against Monsanto! This conversation will come along eventually, I am sure of it – just not quite yet.

                                           (No, my neighbor Kent hasn't seen my backyard!)

So this morning I woke up wondering, just how many people in my neighborhood believe this lie? What did people do prior to the invention of harmful chemicals such as Round-Up that was developed in the 1970’s by Monsanto? I have trouble believing that there were no nice yards in Hawaii. I know - my yard was way out of control...but what if I like the natural look? And what exactly is a weed anyway? My particular problem 'weed' is the haole koa, which is actually a tree.  It is relentless. I owe some respect for its ability to survive. I have some potted plants in my house. Every week I pull new sprouts of the haole koa out of the pots, wondering how so many seeds found their way in there.  No such thing as a weed, really. There are only plants, very strong plants that only get stronger when you challenge their immune systems with poisons. Superweeds. This is the new term for them. Superweeds have only brought more business for chemical companies, introducing an entire range of new and old chemicals to the environment with the purpose of relieving us of the physical labor and time away from our electronic devices to go outside to pull out the unwanted plants that plague our yards and gardens.  As weeds become resistant to chemical, stronger and stronger chemicals are needed to kill them, leading to such drastic measures such as the latest use of a major chemical ingredient in Agent Orange, 2,4,5-T, Scary! 

Unlike our rival ‘weeds’ not all biological systems grow stronger with the introduction of chemicals. Consider the Gulf of Mexico and its dead zone. Notice its location on the map – at the mouth of the Mississippi River. In my lifetime I have seen the changes in the presence, I should say absence of sea life on the beaches of Florida. I grew up in Missouri, part of the corn belt, the birthplace of Monsanto. The mighty Mississippi River - the runoff of the richest agricultural lands of America – chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides draining into the Gulf of Mexico have been a big factor in this current Dead Zone, the disappearance of living reef and fish due to an overabundance of algae growth. The Great Plains, a former prairieland – I say former because the biodiversity of these prairielands has been replaced with miles and miles of mono-cropping. Corn, most of which goes to animal feedlots and biofuel. Where is all the food?  Where are all the bees? The birds? The monarch butterflies?  It appears that Round-Up kills much more than ‘weeds’.  

                                             (Maybe I'll have to try to some!)

So what can I learn about my so-called enemy, the Haole Koa?  Has it any use? Native of Mexico and Northern Central America, it was brought to the islands as a drought tolerant source of high protein fodder for cattle. “The young pods are edible and occasionally eaten with Javanese vegetable salad with spicy peanut and spicy fish wrapped in papaya or taro leaves in Indonesia, papaya salad in Laos^[8] and in Thailand Seeds can be used as a substitute for coffee, and when cooked can be eaten like popcorn.“¹ Larger growing trees are used to shade coffee and cacao plantations. Hard seeds are incorporated into jewelry. Historically, the bark was used to treat stomach pain, and as a contraceptive. It is a good source of firewood and charcoal production. This doesn’t sound so bad. I still have a whole crop in my backyard. I’m going to have to find some of these recipes! Imagine if I gave my neighbor a thank you plate of one of these dishes that include fresh roasted haole koa seeds. The haole koa might be my long lost brother, after all, I also am a haole. 

Advantages: Its growing environment. It grows very well in arid tropical climates and can become a pest species in such climates. Grows best under full sun, needs little water or care once established. Very fast grower. Grows in practically any soil type, doesn't mind salt spray. Hmmm, if only it were ‘pretty’ to my neighbors it would be perfect!

Disadvantages: “It grows quickly, and forms dense thickets which crowd out any native vegetation.^[13] L. leucocephala is considered one of the 100 worst invasive species by the Invasive Species Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.”¹  It sounds very similar to humans! Could it be possible that we on someone else’s invasive species list? 

“Leucaena leucocephala has been considered for biomass production, as its reported yield of foliage corresponds to a dried mass of 2000–20000 kg/ha/year, and that of wood 30–40 m³/ha/year, with up to twice those amounts in favourable climates. It is also efficient in nitrogen fixation, at more than 500 kg/ha/year.”¹ So if I refuse the advise of my neighbor and do not put poison down on my yard, my soil should be good to go for any nitrogen hungry plants that I could grow!  Although I will have to spend more time in the yard pulling out new sprouts of haole koa. 

Sources:

1.  www.inaturalist.org
2. Wikipedia