If faya wasn’t there,
ohi‘a might have been

Sometimes even a pesky plant can prove useful.

If it wasn't for a Myrica faya tree, an invasive species that infests Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, a Navy officer would have tumbled into Kilauea Caldera Sunday morning. The officer, trying to retrieve a hat that had blown away, climbed over safety railings at the edge of a bluff and fell. The non-native tree growing from the cliff face broke his fall and he was rescued without serious injury.

Myrica faya is commonly known as a fire tree, which most likely came about in a misinterpretation of pidgin English's "faya" to mean "fire."

So was it lucky that the tree was growing there? Tim Tunnison, the fellow in charge of invasive plants at the park, says yes and no. Faya trees muscle out native species from the habitat. "I guess it was lucky," Tunnison said, "but maybe if the faya wasn't there, a native ohi'a would been the one to save him."

Cynthia Oi

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