Cycles Above and Below

Happy Full Moon!

Here in Hawai’i nei this is the night of one of our fullest moons, Hoku (hōkū also meaning “star”) with Mahina (moon) rising at sunset and setting at sunrise. According to the ancient Hawaiian Lunar Calendar it is an excellent time for planting, especially banana and root vegetables.

“Mahina rises with the setting sun and spends the entire night with nā hōkū” – teaching from Hō Mai Ka Pono

Earlier this moonth I observed the Lyrid Meteor Shower in the East SouthEast and straight overhead, between 3:30-4:30 am HST. Cycles, witnessed by humans for thousands of years, whizzing by in a fantastical display with the Milky Way backdrop!

---

Below on Earth…

Time for some leaf pattern recognition. Wailuku has been feeling like a jungle after all the rain with my garden pathways growing over with wild edibles! Do you recognize any of your kin?

Asystasia gangetica (Chinese violet); Sonchus oleraceus (sow thistle); Bidens pilosa (Spanish needles); Portulaca oleracea (purslane); Momordica charantia (bitter melon); Solanum americanum (pōpolo)

Find out specifics on how to eat these plants safely in my book or ebook, Wild Food Plants of Hawaiʻi

---

New “Aliens”?

Hottentot Fig

Could this be our next invasive species? Folk from Ireland and the United Kingdom or California might have something to say if we asked. 

Landscaping choices of many new developments have made for increasing amounts of hottentot fig, also known as ice plant, which is a Carpobrotus species. A grape-flavored bubble-gum-with-fig kind of juicy pulp can be sucked out or cut out from these succulent crab claw fruit fireworks.