ANNA PALOMINO
Among hundreds of species of plants, six spindly seedlings on a table in a shade house at Ho’olawa Farms don’t call attention to themselves.But they’re some of the rarest seedlings in the world, offspring of a tree species that has just two mature individuals, one at Puu Mahoe arboretum and one, the last remaining wild one, at Auwahi.
Anna Palomino has babied them along for eventual planting in their home habitat in South Maui, but rescuing the alani tree is just one example – although a peak one – in a career of saving, nurturing and propagating native plants.
Art Medeiros, the researcher who has worked to revive a native dry forest at Auwahi, says Palomino is “the best grower of native plants” on Maui and among the best in the state.
“Her intense interest, matched by her perfectionist qualities,” is part of the reason for her success, Medeiros says. But he says another part is her spiritual outlook. Working with native plants, he says, Palomino has “learned ecological concepts that help her to have a green thumb. She has a deeper understanding of the native plants, a powerful knowledge.”
Palomino says, more modestly, that she’s just extra-patient.
With the alani tree, several people pitched in to keep the germ line going.
The alani trees are a group of many species, mostly native to Hawaii, that give off a smell like anise. When Europeans brought orange trees to Hawaii, the odor reminded the Hawaiians of alani, so alani became the Hawaiian word for orange.
However, alani are not related to citrus. Half a century ago, D.T. Fleming planted a tree at Puu Mahoe overlooking Makena.
There were native trees growing on the south shore then, but today only one is left, and it is not thriving.
With advice from Ernie Rezents, Fleming’s granddaughter Martha Vockrodt Moran brought her alani, which was ailing, back to better health; and Nellie Sugii of the University of Hawaii figured out that nicking the seed would spark germination. Until then no new alani trees had sprouted for decades.
But getting a sprout and getting a vigorous seedling that can be replanted in the wild are different tasks, and it took the patience and skill of Palomino to do that.
She is not the only one, however. Orchidist Don Judson and DLNR employee Richard Nakagawa have also managed it.
Palomino has lived on Maui for 24 years, but it was Rene Sylva who got her interested in native plants 15 years ago. They hiked the island, and Sylva showed her places where seldom-seen native plants still thrived. “I’ve had a passion for it ever since,” she says.
Ho’olawa Farms has supplied thousands of native seedlings for the restoration of Kahoolawe.
Medeiros says Palomino has been a key source in every native plant restoration project on Maui in recent years. “Without Anna, I wouldn’t have had any success” with the restoration at Auwahi, he says.
He also praises her for her careful collection methods and ethical standards in collecting native materials from the wild for nursery stock.
Most younger growers are sensitive to the issue nowadays, but Medeiros says plant collectors were not always so.
Palomino and her partner Don Bowker are still working on reclaiming the dumping grounds that they turned into Ho’olawa Farms (they spent months carting off junk cars and refrigerators to begin), but one of her goals is to fix up the nursery on Kahiapo Road in Haiku as a self-guided educational tour through the rich heritage of island plants.
– Harry Eagar
