Koa: Hawaii's Most Expensive Wood

Ancient Hawaiians used the wood from koa trees for a variety of purposes, most notably for building canoes which they used for migration and intra- and interisland travel. Today, of all the native Hawaiian tree species, koa is the most prized and most expensive, and is used in home flooring, furniture, picture frames, jewelry, and more, as explained in this article.

I had no grand visions of fashioning a canoe from a koa tree nor of having koa wood floors in my home, but, as a native Hawaiian and someone interested in home improvement, I did have a notion that I'd like to have koa trees growing in my yard. And, with the help of a knowledgeable friend, Dr. Sam Gon, I accomplished that.

Sam advised me to find some seed pods from healthy-looking koa trees. I'm a hiker, and I'd seen many koa trees along mountain trails on Oahu, where I live.

Though the locations to get seeds were plentiful, I decided to obtain seeds from trees in the mountains above Pearl City because the trail access was easy and near where I work, and the distance to travel to get the seeds wasn't far. After hiking up a trail for 15 or 20 minutes, I was at a grove of koa trees. Sam told me to select seed pods from healthy looking specimens, and I did so, grabbing a Ziploc bag full of koa seed pods and heading home for step 2.

The next step was to remove the seeds from their pods and to use a sharp knife to cut off a tiny portion of the top of the each seed kernels. I probably did this for 30 to 40 kernels, not that I wanted 40 trees, but for the likelihood that some or many might not make it beyond this step. I had way more seeds than I needed. In hindsight, I would have collected fewer pods.

For step 3, as instructed, I boiled some water in a small pot and placed the clipped kernels in it. According to Sam, this boiling step was meant to activate the seeds to grow. In the wild, koa seedlings proliferate after brush fires because the heat from the flames sets off a sprouting mechanism within individual seeds. Therefore, placing the seeds in boiling water is meant to replicate the intense heat of a brush fire and kickstart the subsequent seedling sprouting dynamics.