Issue 25: Mai`a

Nau ke ku`I, lohi ka lima.

When one grinds the teeth, the hand slows.

Anger makes one slow in working.

Organism of the Week!  Mai`a –  Musa paradisiaca

The banana is a delicious, delicious fruit that is enjoyed by millions in tasty desserts, buttery breads, and just plain.  Hawaiians also enjoyed bananas and had brought bananas to Hawaii as a staple food.  Hawaiian legends say that Pele’s brother brought the banana to Hawaii from Tahiti. 

I’m sure most of us have seen a banana tree.  Except the internet says they’re actually a gigantic herb – part of the grass family.  The stems can be as tall as 20 feet and 8 inches in diameter, made up of their overlapping leaf bases.  These leaves are arranged in a spiral pattern that are tightly rolled and extend and unfurl as they grow outward and upward.  These leaves can be 4 ft long and a foot or two wide. 

Banana trees will die after they produce fruit, but they produce many baby plants so they spread outward.  Fruit vary in shape, size, color, and flavor, but are excellent sources of carbs (if you really need carbs, unlike me). 

Hilariously, women were not allowed to eat bananas (except for two varieties) as they were under kapu until the early 1800s. 

Aside from bein delicious, banana plants had many uses.  The trunks were used as rollers to move canoes from shore to sea.  Banana stalks were added to imus to produce steam in the pit.  The fiber from the leaves were used for thatching, lei strings, tying, braiding into threads and cloth.  The ripe fruit could be used for asthma, boiled rip fruit could be mashed and used to treat constipation.  The nectar sap could be pinched from the flower bud and fed to babies to strengthen them.  Juice from the bud could be used to deal with stomach problems in general.  Pounded peels of ripe bananas could serve as a poultice for wounds – the inside of the peel have antibiotic properties.  Antibiotic bananas for all!

 

By Sabrina Robello
Sourced:  Mostly Here

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