Use invasive species in Hawaii-style holiday decor

We’ve been having real-kine Hawaii winter weather: cold, crisp, clear, kalae days (naked mountains, no clouds atop the Koolau). And then, just when friends come to town and are ready to hike, rainy rain.

I woke up to a blue-sky day and had to drive up Tantalus. Ho! The weeds and alien trees are so overgrown. Guinea grass, an African import for cattle feed, swayed into the road, dangerously narrowing the lanes, and many trees (alien species all) had fallen in the road and had to be chopped up by epic city urban forestry crews.

Here and there were native koas, sparkling in the bursts of sunshine.

My friend Rachel Morton was doing weed control in her mom’s yard to retain the koa trees and hapuu tree ferns, when I spotted something I needed for holiday decor, so I grabbed my camera and pole pruners. And when we worked at the Honouliuli preserve in the Waianae and at Kanepuu dryland forest on Lanai, ecologist Jennifer Higashino and I would brainstorm about uses for weeds as we chopped, chain-sawed and cleared them away.

Christmas berry is one of those alien species. So pretty, so red, you can see how people may have admired this now pesky invasive tree when it first was imported to Hawaii. Admiring it amid the hapuu and ti, I remembered a story I learned as a young apprentice gardener at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai:

William Hyde Rice, governor of Kauai in the late 19th century, had a Hawaiian nickname, “Willie Laiki.” He went on a friendship tour around the islands by steamship and on horseback, and wore an attractive lei of Christmas berry fruits.

Many admired his papale (hat) decoration. Later a new plant sprung up where he had traveled. People watched it grow and wondered what it was. When it fruited, they said, “Oh, that was a gift from Willie Laiki!”

The seeds had fallen off his hatband as he rode and later were a reminder of his visit.

You know I love native plants and have worked for years to perpetuate them. Christmas berry (Schinus terebinthifolius) is an alien invasive weed, but as weeds go it’s fairly cooperative with natives. We once found a patch of super-rare fern, thought to be extinct, thriving under a shady protective canopy of Schinus. The leaf litter makes good mulch for natives, and the plant also has some interesting medicinal uses.

Christmas berry is also pretty in the landscape and is a xeric, or nonthirsty, plant. It is related to mangoes and in the Anacardiaceae family.

THE NEWS says we’re having a shortage of imported Christmas trees, and they are expensive. So use Cook or Norfolk pines or other locally grown conifers.

I too love the smell of “real” Christmas trees, but they are a source of invasive pests such as stinging yellow jackets and disease-infested slugs. The more local we can grow, the better for our native Hawaii environment and our health.

Craft a wreath from pine and ti leaves, pick up wind-blown debris and look around your yard to see what you can create. Cut some alien bamboo and mix that with ironwood for a Hawaii-style New Year’s kadomatsu.

Go explore our wet places and see what the wild, windy weather has given you via gravity. (It’s great for keiki and kupuna adventures, and stomping barefoot through the mud is a bonus!)

Craft a wreath from weedy passion fruit vines like banana poka, and ohia foliage, Ilex dimorphophylla (Okinawan holly), dodder, wax ficus, mock orange, Indian hawthorn or yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) and Wheeler’s Dwarf Pittosporum.

Other materials to consider: morning glory, Hilo holly, octopus tree fruits, pua kenikeni “balls,” kukui leaves and green nuts, crepe myrtle, hau, autograph tree, Sterculia (like the the tiny one at Foster Botanical Garden), lotus and other seed pods (Manila tamarind, or opiuma, seed pods twist open to display a red interior).

I’d love to hear from readers about homemade and alien weed decor!

Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.