Raising Islands--Hawai'i science and environment: A photo of Phyllostegia hispida, Hawai'i's latest endangered species

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

A photo of Phyllostegia hispida, Hawai'i's latest endangered species

For those on the email list, please note that we now have a photo of the Moloka'i mint, Phyllostegia hispida, which was the subject of yesterday's Raising Islands post. It's now in the original story, but here, too. Reader Bill Garnett of Wiliwili Hawaiian Plants, in Kalae, Moloka'i, Hawaii, took the picture and kindly provided the shot.

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Raising Islands: What's in a name?

Raising Islands.

I borrow the name of this blog, gratefully and with permission, from my friend Nainoa Thompson. He uses the term “raising islands out of the sea” to create in the mind the experience of a voyaging canoe coming up on a distant shore, and of watching distant peaks rise out of the sea as the canoe approaches.

The first time I did it with him, our vehicle was the voyaging canoe Hokule'a and the island was Nihoa. I recall the crew's thrill at dawn, seeing the twin peaks of the island appear, and then the saddle between them, and finally the whole island. Thompson was the non-instrument navigator who had brought us there using only stars, clouds, wind, seas, birds and other cues.

The name of this blog also invokes the idea of responsibility—raising as lifting up, as caring for and conserving.

The key to responsibility is understanding. If we are to care for these islands, we need the kind of understanding of the environment that a traditional navigator needs.