The First Hawaiians; Native Plants

They came by air and by sea: seeds and spores that sailed on the ocean currents, drifted high in the atmosphere, and hitched rides with migratory birds. Once every 100,000 years, a new plant made a lucky landfall and established itself in the young, isolated Hawaiian Islands. And then, often, it evolved. When Polynesians arrived in Hawaii, they found an archipelago already teeming with a diverse native flora. These plants, many found nowhere else on earth, became part of the medicine, the worship, the knowledge and the everyday lives—in short, part of the culture—of Hawaii before Western contact.