As gardeners and farmers, most of us will not be recognized in any history books as being responsible for the introduction of a new crop or plant to a location. However, the possibility exists for anyone who has the passion and drive to popularize a plant and to take it to new levels of assimilation (tomatillos anyone?). Introduction of new plants has been ongoing in Hawaii as long as humans have been living here. While this is not unique to Hawaii since from the time humans adopted agriculture as a means to stabilize their food supply, plants were moved to wherever they visited and settled. This is true for human immigration and visitation to Hawaii where many plants including banana, ulu, kalo, kukui, ti and others collectively known as canoe plants were introduced into Hawaiian gardens and the natural landscape. Many of these plants were utilized as food, fiber or medicine, while others were used for religious or symbolic purposes. With the arrival of Western and Eastern cultures, a great many more plants arrived on our island shores. Plants that were important to Western and Eastern diets, tropical fruits and vegetables from around the world, and many plants of ornamental value were introduced. One such person recognized as being an introducer and popularizer was the Spaniard Don Francisco de Paula Marin.
Marin was a man who added a rich history to Hawaii as a horticulturist, and also as an adviser and translator to King Kamehameha I. He arrived in Hawaii in the early to mid 1790s from San Francisco. It has been reported that he jumped ship from the Spanish navy in San Francisco because he claimed to have be shanghaied to serve. Prior to the Spanish navy, Marin worked on a vineyard where he learned many of his horticultural skills. Upon his arrival in Hawaii, he became friendly with Kamehameha I and soon was acting as his translator for the many visitors passing through. He also served as the king’s bookkeeper for the sandalwood trade. In return for his service, the king gave Marin land for his agricultural planting and experiments in Nuuanu, Oahu, for growing many types of plants. In his garden, he not only grew many new plants, but also determined how to best grow many plants that were already in Hawaii.
Marin is often credited for the introduction of many of the crops that we grow today and are commonly associated with the islands. Because of his connection to the king and visitors coming and going, he requested plants and seeds from all over the world to add to his collection. The crops attributed to him were apples, asparagus, avocados, cabbage, carrots, chili pepper, eggplant, lemons, limes, macadamia, olives, onion, oranges, parsley, peas, peaches, pears, potatoes, rice, tea and tobacco, to name a few. However, only a few plants are truly known to have been introduced by Marin, those being the pineapple, coffee, avocado, mango and grapes. For the other crops, a more likely scenario is that he popularized those crops by learning how to grow them well in his garden and Hawaii. He was the first to have a vineyard in Hawaii and as a result we have Vineyard Street in Honolulu, which took the name of what it cut through. He also engaged in selling ship provisions, all products of his bountiful gardens.
Marin’s life is chronicled in the biography “The Letters and Journals of Francisco De Paula Marin” by Ross H. Gast. It covers the circumstances of his arrival in Hawaii and his association with the Hawaiian Monarchy, especially Kamehameha I. It was reported that he had at least three wives and more than 20 children.
As a side note, the Hawaiian translation of Marin is manini as in the fish also known as the convict tang. In the biography by Gast, it was noted that Marin was less than generous with sharing his garden’s bounty of plants and seeds, a characteristic that is greatly frowned upon by nearly all gardeners to this day. In Marin’s defense, this may be because of his reluctance to share his rare plants to those who may not know how to care for it or the problems of propagating deciduous and other hard to propagate plants in the tropics. Whatever the truth may be, here in Hawaii, we still use the euphemism “manini” when referring to the actions of an individual who does not share generously, courtesy of Marin.
While many gardeners would like to emulate Marin in action by introducing a wealth of new plant materials to Hawaii, please do it correctly. Do not collect plants or seeds from the wild without proper documentation to collect and have the proper import documents to bring them into Hawaii. If quarantine and/or inspection is required, it is only for the combined benefit for all as we already have too many unwanted plant, insect and disease pest in Hawaii.
Nagata can be reached at russelln@hawaii.edu.
