Ti

Photo: Ku'ialuaopuna

Resource Units in HAWAIIAN CULTURE

REVISED EDITION

Donald D. Kilolani Mitchell

Kamehameha Schools

Copyright © 1982, 1992 by Kamehameha Schools

First Edition, 1969

pgs. 138-139

Ti

No other plant provided leaves which were needed in preparing foods, thatching houses, fishing, sports, clothing, medicine, religious rituals and warding off evil.

Ki refers to the plant and mole ki or ki to the root. Ti has become the common name. The name lāʻi for ti-leaf is a contraction of lau (leaf) and ki.

Raw foods are wrapped (laulau) in lāʻi and cooked in the imu (kālua) or broiled over coals (lāwalu). Leaves in the imu insulate food from the hot stones and impart a flavor. Food is wrapped in lāʻi and stored or transported in bundles (pūʻolo).

Split dried ti leaves are tied to a net (ʻupena) to make a rain cape. They are fashioned into sandals (kāmaʻa) to protect the feet when crossing rough terrain. In some areas dwellings were thatched with ti as were some temple structures dedicated to the god Lono.

Ti, grown in a favorable location for many years, may have a root weighing 200 to 300 pounds. Roots on the ordinary garden ti may weigh 50 to 60 pounds. A favorite confection years ago was ki baked in the imu for about 24 hours or until it became a sweet, brown, candy-like food.

A famous oven for ki root gave the district of Ka-imu-ki its name. Some say the menehune baked ki in this oven (imu).

The root is dug, washed and preferably cut into pieces small enough to cook readily. The sugar in ti root is levulose which also occurs in honey and many ripe fruits. (Cane sugar is sucrose.)

Missionary William Ellis wrote of the ti root in 1823:

After baking, it appears like a different substance altogether, being of a yellowish brown colour, soft, though fibrous and saturated with a highly saccharine juice. It is sweet and pleasant to the taste, and much of it is eaten in this state, but the greater part is employed in making an intoxicating liquor (ʻōkolehao) much used by the natives.

Ki is baked today in the kitchen oven. Cut the root into small pieces, bake in a covered dish for 10 to 12 hours at 225 degrees, adding water as necessary to keep it from burning. When eaten in large quantities baked ki acts as a laxative.

Lieut. James Burney and Astronomer William Bayly, while anchored off Kauaʻi in 1779 with the Cook expedition wrote:

. . . the natives came off with hogs and sweet potatoes in plenty, and a Root that appears like a Rotten Root of a tree, and as large as a manʼs thigh. It is very much like brown Sugar in tast but Rather Sweeter—the natives call it Tee [ti or ki].

. . . The Natives eat it sometimes Raw and other times Roasted. We made exceeding good Beer, by boiling it in Water, then let it ferment, so as to purge itself. (Beaglehole, p. 573]

After the introduction of the still into Hawaiʻi a liquor, called ʻōkolehao, was distilled from the ti root. The once popular confection of baked ki is rarely seen today.

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Api'i

Photo: Ku'ialuaopuna

Anoai e Kane i ka wekiu,

Anoai e Lono i ka nahele ura

Eia hoi, ka laui a orua

Ulu ka laui, nui ino

E ho mai ke kino, nau

Nau ae a nau mai

E holehole i ka kuau

Ohu ka lau lipo o ka aina

Kapae ka kapu

Ua noa lele...

Sacred greetings o Kane of the high division

Greetings Lono of the sacred forest

Present is a form of you both

The ti spreads abundantly in growth

Grant me your body

For you and for me

To strip the leaf

Your lush greenery adorns the land.

Kapu is set aside

Released...

Traditional K.L.K Ku'ialuaopuna

He upu kahiko ma luna nei mai na kupuna ou mai. He upu i ke akua no ka hole ana ke kanaka i ka laui. Heahea mai nei ia upu nei i ke akua o Kane laua o Lono. No Waiahole aku na kūpuna a ka upu.

This pule is a request for the taking of the lau'i. It is from the kupuna of Waiahole, Koolaupoko.

The Ti has many uses in Hawaii and all over the Pacific. It is also known as Ti leaf, lāʻī, lauʻī, lau kī, lākī, lauʻī. The flower is termed pua ki. Short leaf ti is called lau'i pekepeke.

The green ti is the kino of both Kane and Lono, used always in many ceremonies and practices of old and new. There is another green la'i known as Api'i. The lau of Api'i are curly and shorter in length than the common Ti.

Api'i

Photo: Ku'ialuaopuna

The other variegated colors we see such as red, purple, white and pink are not of the old Hawaii. These were probably brought in after contact.

The whole ki plant can be used can be used for cooking, cordage, medicine, as a pa or food plate, for lawaia or fishing, spiritual cleansing, protection from the unseen forces, thatching for a hale or house, for clothing and for foot wear. It is one of the most used plants in pre contact Hawaii.

Kii: Ku'ialuaopuna

The yellow and dried brown leaves can be used to make a temporary cordage that is strong and durable. The dried brown lau can be used to thatch a hale or house. 10 dried lau are gathered in the hand and tied into one bundle by their stems. This bundle is called a pe'a, and these pe'a are lashed to the framework of a hale and layered next to each other making the hale water resistant.

NPS Photos Hale o Keawe - Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Capes for rain and sandals are still made by our people out of dried lau'i.

Photo: John Stokes

Here are some Olelo Noeau.

Palaki a Moemoe.

Ti daubs of Moemoe. Excrement. Ti eaten in great quantity loosens the bowels. Moemoe was a prophet whose excrement, when questioned, was said to reply of his whereabouts.

E pale lau‘i i ko akua ke hiki aku i Kona.

Place a shield of ti leaves before your god when you arrive in Kona. A message sent by Ka‘ahumanu to Liholiho requesting him to free the kapu of his god Kuka‘ilimoku. Ka‘ahumanu was at that time striving to abolish the kapu system.

Hawai‘i palu la‘i.

Ti-leaf lickers of Hawai‘i. This saying originated after Kamehameha conquered the island of O‘ahu. The people of Kailua, O‘ahu, gave a great feast for him, not expecting him to bring such a crowd of people. The first to arive ate up the meat, so the second group had to be content with licking and nibbling at the bits of meat and grease that adhered to the ti leaves. In derision, the people of O‘ahu called them "ti-leaf lickers."

Ua ahu ka imu, e lawalu ka i‘a.

The oven is ready, let the fish wrapped in ti leaves be cooked. All preparations have been made; now let us proceed with the work.

Ka i‘a ka welelau o ke ahi.

The fish that lies on the top edge of the fire. The ‘o‘opu, wrapped in ti leaves and laid on the hot coals.

E aha ‘ia ana o Hakipu‘u i ka palaoa lawalu ‘ono a Ka‘ehu?

What is happening to Hakipu‘u, with dough cooked in ti leaves, of which Ka‘ehu is so found? This is a line of a chant composed by Ka‘ehu, a poet and hula instructor from Kaua‘i. It refers to a part-white woman with whom he flirted. Used in humor when referring to Hakipu‘u, a place on the windward side of O‘ahu

Lau‘i pekepeke.

Short-leaved ti plant. An insult applied to the kauwa. Like small-leaved ti, they weren't much use. Longer leaves were better liked because they were useful as food wrappers.

Ka wai ho‘iho‘i la‘i o ‘Eleile.

The water of ‘Eleile that carries back the ti-leaf stalk. The pool of ‘Eleile on Maui is famed in songs and chants. Visitors throw ti stalks into the pool and watch the water carry them all around before washing them downstream.

Lei are made with green for ceremonial use. Leaves are made in the Hilo twist.

Lau'i is also used as pale or protection from spirit entities and to keep one from treading over sacred areas. Kupee (or braided lau tied around one's ankles and wrists) keep one who is hurt or bleeding safe when going into sacred areas or spaces occupied by ancestral gods or chiefs. The blood will cause defilement of the aina and must not be entered unless the person is protected by the green leaves.

Kii: ku'ialuaopuna

Kalua- baking in a pit of earth

The green ti are also used to cover the food in the imu, or underground oven pit, as the green leaves create steam and keeps the food from over cooking from the heat of the stones. This layering of lau'i is called Kauwawe or Kauwewe. The stems of the lau'iare tied together, and the leaves spread out fanwise to firm a thick matting covering the food. After this, thick ,coarse lauhala mats were placed over the Kauwawe and entire imu. Dirt was then placed over the mats to keep in the heat and steamso the imu was air tight. Today, the lauhala mats are replaced by eke mau'u or burlap bags.

Lāwalu is a method of cooking fish, meat or other food in ti leaves over a charcoal fire. Food is wrapped in a folded layer of green lau or leaves.

This was the preferred way of cooking fish such as oopu and smaller fish.

Laulau is a package of ki leaves that contains pork, fish or other food items. The bundle is steamed in an imu, or underground pit filled with hot stones.

Photo: Hawaiʻi Nutrition Center

la'au- medicinal

As medicinal uses, the dark green lau are placed under the unclothed body of a patient. The leaves draw out the heat from the body.

If someone has a fever, placing a green leaf on the forehead will draw out the heat from the head and the leaf will absorb the heat, causing the leaf to discolor.

Kii: Ku'ialuaopuna

The center unfurled leaf is the muʻo. its uses are many. Some uses are as a bandage to cover open wounds as the mu'o is sterile. The mu'o is also used in ceremonial cleansing and when internal ailments in one’s body need to be flushed out.

The cooked root of the ti when eaten in large amounts is a laxative.