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Dig This
Friday, April 21, 2000
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
White ginger makes lovely lei, and good eating
as well, says Inge White.
In Hawaii's nourishing environment, foliage has a habit of planting itself and gardeners can wind up with surprises on their hands. Plant mysteries
solved at WCCMany of these volunteers will be familiar -- papaya trees out of unfinished compost, tomatoes redistributed by birds, impatiens from a long-dead parent plant -- but every once in a while, a mystery emerges from the soil.
Inge White, plant detective extraordinaire, helps gardeners solve such mysteries.
White runs Windward Community College's plant identification lab, Kuhi La'au. Created in July 1997, the lab's primary areas of expertise are Native Hawaiian plants, Pacific Island plants and orchids. White, who teaches botany, microbiology and art history, trained at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Florida, at the time the only orchid identification lab in the country. She saw a need for such a facility in Hawaii.
Along with latin names and botanical histories, visitors to White's lab are likely to get a story about their mystery plant.
DISCOVER WCC
What: Ho'olaulea 2000: A Voyage of Discovery includes events for the keiki, live entertainment, an open house and a native plants and cookbook sale
Upon identifying a clipping from a castor bean plant that had sprung up unbidden in a Makiki yard, White explained the plant was cultivated in her native Indonesia during the Japanese occupation in WWII. Occupying troops insisted the farmers rip out their crops and plant the castor bean so they could use its oil for their airplane engines.
White takes delight in hearing people's stories and seeing unusual plants. A favorite was a carnivorous plant from Africa with huge flowers White found fascinating. "Instead of her thanking me, I thank her," she said. "The best thing is to meet all those people who are bringing the plants."
The resources White employs in her detective work are all stored in the tiny lab, which is no bigger than a small faculty office.
"Manuals are very important to us to help identify the plants," she said. And White credits two recent donors with greatly expanding their library. Honolulu Orchid Society President Jean Inouye donated orchid manuals from around the world and Mien Rifai, vice minister of research and technology for Indonesia, donated manuals from that country, which has plants similar to those found throughout the Pacific.
In addition to manuals, White and her student assistants maintain a monograph system; filing photos, papers and articles on plants. The orchid files are organized by species and country of origin. "We don't deal with hybrids," she said, adding with about 35,000 species, orchids are said to be the largest family in the plant kingdom. She estimated hybrid varieties number in the millions.
The lab's dry herbarium contains pressed specimens of native and Pacific Island plants. Its wet herbarium catalogs bulkier specimens of those plants.
There is no budget for adding to these resources.
Events like Ho'olaulea 2000, tomorrow at WCC, give White and her students an opportunity to raise funds for manuals, stipends for student aides and plant labeling around campus.
She also has a long-term fund-raising goal. "Someday we would like to have our own greenhouse consisting only of orchid species," said White. It's important for students to actually see the plants flower if they are to learn to identify them, she said.
In addition to helping people identify plants and swapping stories, White can likely tell the baffled gardener whether the plant in question is edible. She may even have a handy recipe.
White cooks with everything from weeds to tropical flowers. Her latest experiment was amaryllis tempura, which she pronounced delicious.
"I feel bored with my cooking if I'm always doing the same thing," she said.
White believes there are physical and psychological benefits to beautiful, colorful food. She has cooked with vanda orchids, challenging Alan Wong to come up with recipes for the flower. "He makes such a wonderful salad using just the petals of the vanda," she said, and he uses the leaves in stir-fry. She's cooked with the flowers of torch ginger and white ginger, and offers a recipe, below.
White said she has never had an experiment go wrong as she is careful to check the history of the plant for any known toxicity before trying to eat it.
"Kuhi La'au Cooks" contains a couple of White's recipes and will be on sale tomorrow from noon to 3 p.m. to raise funds for the lab.
The lab will be open 9 to 11:30 a.m. for plant identification.
AVOCADO SALAD WITH WHITE GINGER VINAIGRETTE
1-2 ripe avocado(s)
10-20 white ginger petals (see note)
1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
Salt, sugar, black pepper to tasteMix avocado chunks with ginger petals and onion. Whisk olive oil and vinegar in small bowl until blended. Add salt, sugar, black pepper to taste. Stir vinaigrette into avocado mixture. Serve cool.
Note: Flowers must be grown organically to be used in food. When harvesting in the wild, avoid areas like roadsides that may have been sprayed with herbicides or pesticides.
Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!
Stephanie Kendrick's gardening column runs Fridays in Today.
You can write her at the Star-Bulletin, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802
or email skendrick@starbulletin.com
