The three trees that are being trimmed here are called Kamani Trees. The Kaimani nut tree begins shedding her nuts around the last week of August each year. When facing the ocean, The center tree starts first then the right tree, then the left tree. On average, they shed about 60-80lbs of nuts per hour. The tree on the right sheds the smallest nuts. the tree on the left sheds the largest nuts. On the last week of September, the center tree stops shedding her nuts.
2011 the trees started falling nuts this year the 1st week of July. It is now end of August and the nuts are falling to the tune of 300-500 lbs a day with no end in sight. The dumpsters are now so heavy (weighing about 2,000+ by weeks end, that they are almost too hard to move out of their stalls for dumping. Last week I had to use the forklift to move one of them. I also took the manlift to knock the nuts off the tree to accelerate their falling because they had been falling at such a rapid rate and so many that it now became a safety issue as people had been unexpectedly hit on the head and arms. Because the nuts are not big enough to cause any real damage, and hardly any chance of hurting anybody, but it does catch you off guard and becomes a topic for discussion during the evening sunset dinner. The average size nut is about 1.3oz or 38 grams in weight. Want an interesting website on the dynamics or math of a falling nut? Simply convert the math from the item discussed to a nut! http://theeyegame.com/speleo/Pubs/rlenergy/Default.htm
2010 the trees started early. The tree on the left began dropping nuts on the last week of July, then the center tree started around the first week of August. Tree #3 to the right hasn't gone off yet.
Tree #3 on the right side facing the ocean just began falling today Aug 18, 2010. Tree #2 is in the center and Tree #1 is on the right side of the property facing the ocean. The trees have now slowed in the falling as of Sept 25, 2010 but not all together stopped. Here is an update on the kamani nut saga entitled, "The falling kamani nut". The nuts have continued to fall at a rate that requires constant cleanup many times throughout the day. Unlike other years where there is a lapse in days requiring cleanup, since August 18, 2010 thru now Jan. 8, 2011 the nuts falling has been continuous requiring cleanup of nearly 200 lbs. of nuts per day. Then a slight slow down through the end of January 2011 daily falling at the rate of about 60-80 lbs a day. During the heavier cycle back in August and Sept the rate would have been nearly 600 lbs. of nuts cleanup per day.
The official day for leaves to start falling en masse' has not arrived as of Jan 08, 2011. Here they come . . . Monday Jan 24, 2011 the leaves start felling. On March 21, 2011 the bulk of the leaves stopped. So the leaves fell for 3 months this year without letup.
Here is what I have found to be the largest Kamani leaf found yet. If you find a bigger one, lets replace it to be the biggest leaf winner. We'll photo it and date the new leaf, then post it for all to see. This one is 15 1/4" long 9 1/4" wide
LARGEST KAMANI LEAF found 2/5/12 - 16.25" long and 10.4" wide
LARGEST KAMANI LEAF found 1/13/11 - 13.25" long and 10.25" wide
The job was long, hard and appeared to be more difficult of a job than I would ever want to take on. Great job Kai! The trees in this picture were trimmed August 20, 2008 just before the nuts began falling. Now we trim the coconut trees on March and October each year.
The nuts fall each year around the first week of September. They fall relentlessly to the tune of about 80 lbs. an hour when the three trees are in full bloom. Then around the 2nd week of October, they taper off to a trickle and then the leaves start falling. The center tree falls first then the tree on the north falls second but with a much smaller nut than the center and then the biggest nuts from Tree #3which is on the left, start falling third. They have tapered off falling around the 2nd week of October. The leaves are just now starting to fall more than usual.
Kamani
Alexandrian laurel- Calophyllum inophyllum- introduced
There are two different types of kamani. They are known as the true kamani and the false kamani. The true kamani has a seed that looks like a ball and the false kamani has a seed that looks like an oval and somewhat like an eye. The false kamani's leaves are bigger than the true kamanis.
The red-brown wood from the trunk of the kamani tree is well suited for being carved into ‘umeke (bowl) and pā (platter or tray) for food because there is no disagreeable sap taste imparted by this wood. The wood is also great for carving, cabinet making, and boat making. Whistles are made from the fruit by removing it from the spherical seed, piercing a hole in the shell and attaching a yard-long cord; when the nut is whirled by the string it produces oeoe (a whistling sound). The fruit can be burned and used for insect repellent. Oil extracted from the nut is useful in lomi (massage), for oiling or waterproofing kapa (bark fiber cloth), and also medicine. But the oil should never be eaten because it may be poisonous. The small white flowers are prized for their scent. These flowers cluster from 4 to 15 and are found during late spring and early summer.
Kamani are commonly found along shorelines, beaches, and coastal forests. They grow in warm, wet places, with lots of sun, and they grow best in sandy soil. The tree can withstand wind, salt, floods, and droughts, and is commonly used for costal stabilization.
Bible Scripture:
Genesis 9:3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
Above: left: true kamani tree; right: false Kamani tree
Photo from Pualei L.
Seeds of Beauty
by Betty Fullard-Leo
Scholars theorize that of the twenty-seven plants thought to have been brought to the Islands by the first Polynesian explorers, only two - kamani and kukui - bore seeds with a hard enough shell to be used in seed craft. Of necessity, kukui nuts were first burned as a source of light, used as a dye for designs on kapa, canoes and tattoos, and a seasoning for food, and only when nuts and time permitted, were they strung for personal adornment. Kamani, a large, perfectly round brown nut, also may have been worn in leis, wristlets and anklets by early Hawaiians. Acording to Big Islander Marie MacDonald in her book, Ka Lei, "More lei hua or Lei'ano'ano, seed necklaces, were made as new plants with tough-shelled seeds were introduced and became common (after Western contact)."
The introduction of the electric light in Hawai'i probably allowed the kukui to be used more extensively in leis. In recent times, writes MacDonald, "The steel-tipped drill and especially the electric drill have made seed lei making a popular pastime."
Though seed craft has evolved to an art form over the last decade or two, paralleling a renaissance of all Hawaiian arts and crafts, it has a definite history in the Islands. Big Island-born crafter, Hanai Hayashida says, "I've seen pieces (leis) more than 100 years. old. They just turn a darker color - darker brown for wiliwili. All you have to do is restring them and they can be worn again."
Before she made seed leis, Hayashida learned to make floral leis from her mother when they lived on the Big Island's Parker Ranch. Hayashida says, "My hobby was to find leis our tutus used to wear and try to duplicate them. Seeds were done in so many different colors and patterns, they sparked my imagination."
A skilled crocheter now living on Oahu, Hayashida began to experiment with stringing seeds and then attaching the strand onto itself in a circular pattern using a crochet hook. She explains, "I adapted the American way of crocheting pearls that was popular with crafts people at that time (in the 1960's)." Sometimes she combined glossy bright red or brown wiliwili, or gray-green Kakalaio'a, commonly alled Hawaiian pearls, with perfect little sea shells for a pleasing contrast in colors and textures. It was the first time the crochet method had been used for the Hawaiian craft, though other methods of seed lei making - stringing on single strands, or typing multiple strands together to make designs - had long existed. A spiral pattern of seeds similar to the crocheted method also can be achieved by stringing a single strand of sseeds and wrapping it around a central cord.
Hayashida teaches the members of Chinky Mahoe's hula halau to make seed leis to wear during performances. Halau members teach friends and family, and they sell their work to rais funds for travel, costumes and other expenses involved in hula competitions such as the prestigious Merrie Monarch held annually in Hilo. Ipolani Vaughn took classes from Hayashida because her daughter was taking hula and needed seed leis for her dance costume. In turn, Vaughn taught her friends: Big Islander Tuti Kanehele and Oahuan Bill Char. Vaughn and Char often work with small wili wili seeds; 300 of the beige, black, red and orange seeds are needed for a single spiral lei. Like most seed crafters, they don't make seed leis with get-rich-quick expectations, as too much time-consuming work is involved. Vaughn says laughingly, "The Lord gave us all these wonderful things to work with, but he certainly didn't make it easy."
When Vaughn taught Big Island seed crafter Tuti Kanehele crochet techniques, Kanehele was already familiar with the popular tied method. Originally from Niihau, she had learned the tied method by stringing the treasured Niihau shell leis. In the simplest tied method, which can be adapted to seed leis, two strands of sugi (fishing line) are knotted together in the middle. Holes are drilled in each seed through the piko, the point at which the seed was attached to the pod, on one side and angled to emerge at the top. A seed is strung on each of two opposing lines; the lines are drawn together and knotted. Then seeds are strung on the opposite two lines, and these are drawn together and knotted. The pattern is repeated until a tied necklace of four stands or more, which look woven together, reaches the proper length.
Most crafters have favorite seeds to work with, occasionally experimenting with new seeds when they find something that strikes them as interesting. Wiliwili is popular because it can be found in abundance on all Islands in a variety of colors and it has a glossy finish that requires little cleaning. The red-orange wiliwili is endemic to Hawai'i. Orange wiliwili grows on Moloka'i. Beige seeds only grow two or three in each pod and they thrive on Kaua'i, and burgundy wiliwili have eight or nine seeds in a pod and grow on Oahu.
Some seeds are tiny, like the ali'i poe, which resembles a pepper pod, and the black-eyed Susan, a bright red, round seed with one dark spot. Palm seeds require a great deal of work to string, as they need to be dried, husked, filed, sanded and polished. Of the palms, the monkey nut and the Manila nut are commonly used in seed leis. Another palm, the coconut, might be cut into pieces, drilled and linked together with cord, wire or ribbon. Seeds like the small, black manele, or soapberry, and the brown skunk seed, or peka'a, commonly called burn beads, have a natural luster and need only be cleaned and drilled before stringing. Two of the easiest seeds to string are the pu'ohe'ohe, or Job's tears, which have a natural opening, and the brown ekoa, or haole koa seed, which can be boiled until soft and then pierced with a sharp needle for stringing.
Some seeds, like kamani nuts, grow in abundance, while others are unusual and only occasionally found in leis. The 'elepani, or elephant, is an oval brown seed, about the size of a bean with a darker circular pettern on one end. When a lei is crocheted of 'elepani, it bears a varigated resemblance to a feather hat band made of over-lapping, dark-tipped brown pheasant feathers.
Kukui nuts, which were so in demand in early Hawaii are today one of the most common seeds, yet crafters often prefer to work with other seeds which require less preparation. About the size of a walnut with ridges, the kukui's meat must be removed to prevent bugs from taking up residence in a finished lei.
Hawaii's kukui lei makers face fierce competition from the sales of cheaper kukui leis that are made in the Philippines and differ only slightly in appearance. Philippine kukui are usually more oblong, or pointed, and the polish may appear scratched or less shiny.
In contrast to mass production of kukui leis from the Philippines, in Hawai'i most seed craft is done as a cottage industry by artisans like the Big Island's Ed Fergerstrom, who strings kukui at his Hilo home. Two years ago, a friend, John Kimi, showed the retired Fergerstrom the machines he used, and Fergerstrom devised his own techniques from there. "I'm a good copy cat," he says modestly but in truth Fergerstrom originated an unusual double kukui lei with nuts that lay flat, side by side as they encircle the neck "The first comment from people is that they have never seen anything like mine," he admits. "my nuts are hand polished. I never bleach the white ones and I never paint the dark ones. Varnish will turn yellow. Mine are all natural with a finish that's like putting your hand on glass," he says proudly. In his backyard, he has planted a tree that is expected to produce small nuts. White kukui must be hand-picked at an immature stage, so this will ensure him a reliable supply of the rare whites when the tree starts producing in a couple of years. Fergerstrom says kukui strands during the early 1900's were worn very long, almost to the knees, but today the leis are worn shorter, about 32-34 inches.
Fergerstrom's double necklaces are generally priced from $65 to $195 in fine retail boutiques.
In shops such as Discoveries (phone 885-3622) on the Big Island, prices for leis reflect the rarity of the seed as well as the work put into making a lei. A small seed, Chinese-red wiliwili choker might cost $450, though more common wiliwili leis can be found for much less at crafts fairs.
To choose a quality lei, look at the way the colors are combined to make a pattern, and check the workmanship. Seeds should be sized and the lei should be finished nicely, perhaps with a hand-polished kukui nut at either end. Pride in workmanship is universal with every crafter, whether he works with the demanding kukui, the smaller, more colorful wiliwili, or any of the less common seeds. For Island seed crafters, the rebirth of the art has brought a renewed respect for Hawaiian artisans of old, as well as increased pride in their own culture.
Here is some more tree trimming
Kai's Affordable Tree Trimming did the job. Kai Farrell was the one in the tree. He did and continues to do a great job. He can be reached at 864-8909.
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