Natural History

'Inia, Pride-Of-India, Chinaberry, Persian Lilac
(Melia azedarach)

Introduced in the 1830's, 'inia was popular for many years. The species commonly grown here comes from China and the Himalayas. (There is also a species that is native to Australia.) Besides growing in gardens and parks, these trees grow wild in gulches and pastures, especially in the upcountry area. The fast-growing trees can grow up to 60 feet tall and has wide-spreading branches. They will grow in any well-drained, friable soil and can tolerate drought, pests and wet soil. They have been widely cultivated in warm regions of the world for their shade and their sweet-smelling lavender flowers. The wood is weak and not particularly useful as lumber or for woodworking.

Branched clusters of the lovely flowers decorate the large, elegant, doubly pinnate, compound-leafed foliage from March to June. Each flower has five star-like petals and a purple tubular center. The little, half-inch, hard, golden round fruits that follow hang from the tree throughout the fall and the winter, even after the leaves fall off. These fruits are bitter-tasting and nauseating…a good thing, since they can be highly poisonous if eaten.

All parts of the chinaberry tree contain several alkaloids called tetranortriterpene neurotoxins. These poisons inhibit an insect hormone that allows insects to molt and insect larvae cannot mature on this tree. Because the fruit and leaves repel some insects, they have been used by some people while drying or storing edible fruits. Chinaberry fruits have been ground up and used as insecticides and as flea powder and fishermen sometimes used the bark of this tree to stun fish.

In humans, the toxins attack the central nervous system. Not good. The tree also contains an unknown toxin that damages the human digestive system when any part of the tree is swallowed. Poisoning from the chinaberry fruit in humans is rare because of the fruit's bitter and nauseating taste. However, because the leaves are used in folk remedies in southwest Asia, in teas made from chinaberry leaves or bark to treat worms, constipation and menstrual cramps, there have been cases of fatalities due to the use of the plant parts. On Maui, the tea was used externally to bathe wounds on victims of Hansen's disease.

Pigs are very susceptible to chinaberry poisoning and other types of livestock have also been killed from eating parts of this tree.

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Arts & Culture

Rise of the Kihei Condo

Around 1935, Kihei was just a "small fishing village fronted by a long stretch of golden beach" where swimming "could be enjoyed" (according to one Maui News story of the time). Remnants of the old landing are still extant. Since then, like the "cape" it literally means, the name has spread over the whole coastline between Maalaea to Makena.

Early in the 20th century, the government developed the large-lot, fee-simple Kamaole Homesteads in Kihei. In 1940, the territorial land commissioner auctioned off half-acre lots on the ocean at Kamaole. Because the area, at the time, was largely an economic wasteland with no plantation agriculture, A&B sold off much of its North Kihei holdings in Maalaea soon after the commissioner's auction.

Thirty years later, by the early 1970s, these areas became sites for the heavy development of resort condominiums as well as a handful of hotels built by a diversity of small local and mainland companies. Meanwhile, A&B, in a joint venture with Northwestern Mutual Life Company, began to develop the Wailea resort, which, according to one County study made in 1970, accounted for nearly half of all "land zoned for urban use in the Kihei planning area." South of Wailea, the Seibu Group Enterprises, a big Japanese firm, started a resort on half of the 1,000 acres it owned at Makena in the mid-1970s.

As of 1980, according to the US Census Bureau (as indicated in a State of Hawaii report) Maui County had little more than twice the condominiums that Kauai and Hawaii counties had combined. Three years later, Maui had three to four times the condominiums that all of the other islands had put together.

The 1983 State of Hawaii Data Book shows just how rapidly the condominiums were sprouting. In 1983, it says, the island of Maui had about 16,500 condominium units, compared with the 1980 census count of about 10,400 units. Nearly half of the condominiums in existence or being built at the time were along the Kihei coast.  

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: Stop teasing me!
BRADDAH-NICS: Eh! No make li' dat, you!

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: Jeffrey's so arrogant that he snubs his friends on the street.
BRADDAH-NICS: Dat Jeffrey! He so ho'okano, jalike he dodono you when you pass him!

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: Jay is a self-promoter, I think.
BRADDAH-NICS: Jay jus' like ac' tantaran...da potot makin' big body.

 

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Local Grinds

Pork and Peas

Ingredients:

 

• 2 trays pork
• 2 bags frozen peas
• 1 round onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 cans tomato sauce
• 5 pieces garlic
• 1/2 cup oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp shoyu
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• salt and pepper to preference

   

Procedure:

 

• Chop pork into bite sized pieces and boil meat until it is tender
• While waiting mince garlic, dice onions and cut the bell pepper into thin strips
• When meat is finished, strain and rinse
• Add oil and stir fry onions for 5 minutes on high
• Add in meat and fry until golden brown
• Stir in oyster sauce, shoyu and peas then let it simmer for 5 minutes
• Add tomato sauce and stir until it's mixed well and let it simmer with lid on for 10 minutes or until peas are thoroughly cooked
• Salt and pepper to taste

   

Potato Salad

Ingredients:

 

• 3 red potatoes
• 3 white potatoes
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 red onion
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 1/2 cups mayo
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp mustard
• Salt and pepper

   

Procedure:

 

• Rinse each potato very well and chop them into bite sized chunks
• Boil it until potatoes become tender without overcooking
• While waiting on potatoes to boil, dice onion and celery
• When potatoes are finished boiling rinse and strain
• Set it aside to cool off
• In a mixing bowl combine mayo, dijon mustard, mustard, thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste
• Add celery and onion to mix then add potatoes
• Mix to coat potatoes evenly
• Refrigerate until ready to eat

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