The Imposter Tree

Tonight I am sitting on the couch with my partner -- the two of us side-by-side, each with a laptop computer in our laps -- and I showed him a photo I took today. I said, "Honey (he's a botanist/oceanographer), what is this flower?" And he casually says, "Gopher wood."

Koa Haole

I can't tell you how many times some one in church has muttered to me, or me to them, "Just what the heck is gopher bark?" And the answer is, "Who knows?" I looked at my love and sang, "God said to Noah to build me an arky, arky ... That kind of gopher wood?"

He answers, "It's Acacia and some scholars think it might be golpher wood. Others claim that gopher wood is really cypress."

Acacia trees come in many types and there are a startling number of varieties here on the island. The Acacia Koa is one of my favorites. In the photo above the white fuzz ball is the flower of the plant, the green knobby ball is the flower bud and the brown behind it is a withered flower. (Another of my Acacia favorites is the Rainbow Shower Tree, which you can see here.)

The leaves first drew my attention to the plant. They look like the Sensitive Plant, so I touched them expecting them to curl. They didn't. The scent of the flower came to my nose -- very lite and sweet. I snapped the photo, returned to our condo, uploaded my memory card, opened the photo and queried, "Honey. what's this?" And received a lesson in Biblical history.

Update: With just a little online research my partner discovered this tree is an imposter! It is the Koa Haole*. It is a cousin of the Acacia and the Rainbow Shower tree, but is is NOT gopher wood. The natives gave this tree the name, haole, because it is an import and an impostor of the real thing. OC started his research when I mentioned that the leaves of the plant are what caught my attention. The leaves I described were very different from the leaves he knew grew on the Acacia Koa. He started looking online. Then I got a lesson in scientific integrity. The photo now bears the correct name and the information given is now accurate.

*Haole is the Hawaiian word for foreigner.

Little Pebbles

Ma'ili Beach got its name from the abundant, ma, little pebbles, ili'ili, in the area. The stones are naturally polished and smooth from rolling through the sand and surf. Many of the stones are polished bits of shell and coral. This is the beach you want to visit if you like finding trinkets from nature.

The "shell" stones are easily found. I gathered all of these within an arm's reach. If you look closely you can still see the swirls in the polished snail shells.


My favorite shells are the ones worn smooth by the sea. This summer when I was in Friday Harbor, Washington and in Canada on Vancouver Island, I had to hunt for them. At Ma’ili the beach seems to be made of them. I filled my pockets.

I didn't keep all of the shells I gathered, but choosing was hard! Each one has its own shape, texture and personality. The big red snail shell is tinted by red clay. The Ma’ili Park grounds that aren’t reef, shell or sand are red clay.

The big, white, porous rocks are coral. A reef hides beneath the shifting sands of Ma’ili Beach. Much of it is sand stone and it was exposed when OC and I visited. We found many fossils embedded in the rock. It was like walking on history.

Here's a closer look at my treasures ... (click picture for larger view)

Ma'ili Beach, Waianae, Ohau, Hawaii

Defining Aloha

Most likely you have been told that aloha means both hello and good-bye. That is a culturally limited misconception, and whomever started it robbed the word of much of it's depth and splendor. Aloha cannot be translated with words. As a haole (foreigner), I really have no business trying to convey this word, either; but I think I can do a better job of it then white-European history did.

My suspicion that aloha meant more then hello and good-bye was born on the flight to Hawaii. I was reading the airline magazine (hey, it's a long flight!) and there was an article on adoption Hawaiian- or aloha-style. The woman in the article said that she raised her adopted son "with aloha". That made no sense in light of what I thought I knew of the word. I kept reading.

From what I could gather from the article, the word aloha conveys love, acceptance, honor, eternal welcome .... and more. I came to realize that aloha is not a casual word, but one with great emotional significance. Still, I had only clues, and no real definition.

Over the next several days I heard "the spirit of aloha" referred to in many different, welcoming contexts. A commercial promised, "you will find aloha here." I have yet to visit the establishment which made the promise so I don't know if their statement is true, but somehow I doubt it. From what I have gathered, aloha is a feeling that emanates from one's heart. It is an expression of love, acceptance and belonging. It is personal, and cannot be packaged for sale and that means -- no matter what language we speak -- it is impossible to translate with words.

Further resources:

The Coconut Boyz Hawaiian (online) Dictionary

KaLeoAloha