Kalo, new state plant of Hawai‘i, will represent island agriculture at Washington showcase

It took years, but the most important food crop in Hawai‘i finally became the official state plant.

In 2007, the State Legislature passed an act to establish kalo as the state’s official plant due to its cultural significance. The law did not take effect until some 18 years later, on Jan. 1 of this year.

Now kalo, also known as taro, is set to star in a business showcase for national leaders in Washington this June.

“We’re promoting it as the Hawai‘i state plant,” said Sharon Hurd, chairperson of the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture.

The annual Hawai‘i on the Hill event introduces federal leaders and policymakers to island industries, including agriculture. It features a “Taste of Hawai‘i” day, and kalo in its new role will take center stage this year.

“It gives us a chance to promote the cultural aspects of it,” Hurd said. “We’re going full-on kalo.”

Colocasia esculenta, commonly known as taro, or kalo in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language), is an herbaceous perennial with a starchy corm and nutritious heart-shaped leaves. It is one of about 23 “canoe plants” brought to the Hawaiian Islands sometime between 1000 and 1200 C.E. by Polynesian voyagers.

Kalo must be prepared and cooked well to prevent itchiness in the mouth and throat. Poi, a dish of cooked and mashed corms thinned with water, has been ubiquitous in Hawai‘i for centuries.

Kalo is also used in kūlolo, a pudding made with coconut cream, and its greens are served in laulau. Many restaurants serve kalo chips. Braddah Dave’s on Kaua‘i produces, packages and markets several varieties of taro burgers. The food nonprofit Mālama Kaua‘i last year developed kalo french fries.

While their crops remain popular, kalo farmers face challenges like access to land and infrastructure, as well as invasive species. These include apple snails, coqui frogs and little fire ants.

“Our biggest worry, right now, is that it’s going to impact farmers’ willingness to farm,” said Haylin Chock, outreach specialist of the Kaua‘i Invasive Species Committee.

Some kalo farms in Hawai‘i are overrun by coqui frogs. The amphibians were introduced to the state in or before 1988 and have no natural predators or competitors to keep their populations in check.

Little fire ants, which deliver stings that remain painful for weeks, fall from trees in infested areas and float in loʻi (irrigated terraces used for kalo cultivation) and swimming holes. Apple snails — known vectors of parasitic worms — eat kalo corms and shoots.

The state Agricultural Development Division’s most recently published kalo statistics said 438 acres throughout Hawai‘i were dedicated to kalo farming in 2021. That’s about 4% of the 1.05 million acres of farmland in the state, according to agricultural data collected in 2022.

An article also published in 2021 described Hanalei on the North Shore of Kaua‘i as the islands’ kalo capital, with farms that produce more than two-thirds of all the kalo in Hawai‘i.

Chock explained the profound cultural significance of kalo in Hawai‘i.

Hāloa was the first-born son of the sky father Wākea and the earth mother Papahānaumoku, through Wākea’s relationship with their daughter, Hoʻohokukalani.

“Wākea has a child with her, and that is Hāloa,” Chock said. “But that child is stillborn, so they they plant him into the earth, and then the first kalo plant grows.”

A second, healthy child was born. He became the ancestor of the Hawaiian people.

The story teaches Hawaiians how to interact with their environment, according to Chock: “Hāloa is our older brother and feeds us, and in turn, we take care of Hāloa.”

At the time of Europeans’ arrival, more than 300 varieties of kalo may have existed in the Hawaiian Islands, according to the 2007 state plant act. Approximately 87 of these varieties are still recognized today. Many can be found at the Limahuli Garden and Preserve on the North Shore of Kaua‘i.

“Our kalo has come from all over Hawai‘i,” said Randy Umetsu, a horticulturalist at Limahuli. “We have the short and stocky to the tall and long, to the narrow leaf, to the wider, rounder leaf.”

The 1,000-acre site is one of five gardens tended by the nonprofit National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawai‘i and Florida. Limahuli also preserves and propagates 72 kalo cultivars, 70 of which are Hawaiian.

A kalo cultivar is a plant known only in cultivation. To persist, it must be continually and intentionally propagated.

Kalo cultivars originate when a plant with a rare genetic mutation appears. This results in a plant with distinct traits affecting its color, shape, size, taste, texture or suitable growing conditions. Farmers who finds those traits desirable can grow genetic clones of the original plant using huli: smaller tubers that grow off corms, used as propagative material.

The 70 cultivars at Limahuli, sourced from throughout Hawai‘i, can trace their ancestry directly to the canoe plants brought ashore by the first Polynesians to settle the islands.

“Between cultivars, there’s a huge spectrum,” said Umetsu, who credits Jerry Konanui, a kalo farmer who died in 2017, with the revitalization of Hawaiian cultivars.

“Kalo is what makes Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i,” Umetsu added. “To actually see that flourish, where it’s on everybody’s table all the time, would be one of my hopes and dreams.”

Editor’s Note: Reporter Scott Yunker works on a casual basis as a gardener in the horticulture department of the National Tropical Botanical Garden.