Off the news: Festival prunes flower and fern harvesting
The Merrie Monarch Festival will pause the wild harvesting of maile, ohia lehua, and palapalai for three years. This initiative aims to protect native plants, particularly the red ohia, which is suffering from a fungal blight.
The Merrie Monarch Festival’s announcement of a three-year pause on wild harvesting of maile, ohia lehua and palapalai (a lace fern) for its annual Hilo hula competition is welcome. It’s being done in the spirit of malama aina and shared responsibility to preserve Hawaii’s native plants; the red ohia, in particular, has been devastated by a fungal blight.
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