Pineappley Hala Tree Botanical Illustrations for Hawaii Five-0 Pilot

Summary: The active police procedural series Hawaii Five-0 2010 pilot Sept. 20, 2010, has pineapples even though Hawaii harbors its own pineappley hala trees.

hala (Pandanus tectorius) with fruit; Kuloa Point Trail, Haleakalā National Park, southeastern Maui: Jackie Frost/NPS photo, via National Park Service

Tourists associate Hawaii with pineapples in the Hawaii Five-0 2010 active police procedural television series pilot Sept. 20, 2010, even though hala tree botanical illustrations acclaim Hawaii's beloved native pineapple-like fruit tree.

Director Len Wiseman and writers Alex Kurtman, Peter M. Lenkov and Roberto Orci build upon the 1968-1980 series by Leonard Freeman (Oct. 31, 1920-Jan. 20, 1974). Season One's pilot charts courses to Hawaii for daughter Grace (Teilor Grubbs) and ex-wife Rachel Edwards (Claire van der Boom) and then Danny Williams (Scott Caan). Danny describes his departure from his home state as not at all desirable "had my ex not remarried and dragged my daughter to this pineapple-infested hellhole."

Pineapple infestations ensue from Spanish conquerors exporting the Brazilian-Paraguayan native from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe in 1493 into Hawaii and the Philippines in the 1500s.

And yet hala trees fit, as pineapple-like fruit trees, into the native flora of Australia, Hawaii, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea, Pacific Ocean islands and the Philippines.

Hala trees, grouped scientifically by Johann Philipp Du Roi (June 2, 1741-Dec. 8, 1785) and Sydney Parkinson (1745?-Jan. 26, 1771), grow from cuttings and from seeds. Two to eight brown-red-white, coconut-tasting, elliptical, oblong or wedge-shaped, viable 0.25- to 0.8-inch- (6.35- to 20.32-millimeter-) long seeds hide within every phalange (phalanx) of filament-held stamens. Elliptical, globe-shaped, oval, 3.15- to 11.81-inch- (8- to 30-centimeter-) long, 1.57- to 7.87-inch- (4- to 20-centimeter-) wide fruits include 38 to 200 bunched-up, fleshy, wedge-shaped phalanges.

Hala tree botanical illustrations juggle convex- to flat-tipped, oblong to oval, 1- to 4.33-inch- (2.5- to 11-centimeter-) long, 0.59- to 2.64-inch- (1.5- to 6.7-centimeter-) wide phalanges.

Hala trees, known scientifically as Pandanus tectorius (from Malay pandan, "screwpine" and Latin tectorius, "covered") keep seeds within 0.6- to 1.4-inch- (15- to 35-millimeter-) long endocarps.

The Pandanaceae subtropical and tropical family member locates edible, fibrous, fleshy, orange-red-yellow 0.39- to 1.18-inch- (10- to 30-millimeter-) long mesocarps between endocarp exteriors and phalange interiors. Flowers materialize respectively three to six or 15 years after asexual or sexual propagation and manifest fruiting a year or two after bee or wind pollination. Female-flowering hala trees net cone-like, pineappley 7.87- to 11.81-inch- (20- to 30-centimeter-) long inflorescences with 4 to 16 parallel-rowed or radial, short-stigmaed carpels and kidney-shaped flowers.

Male 9.84- to 23.62-inch (25- to 60-centimeter) spikelets offer day-only, long-anthered, 1.58- to 4.33-inch (4- to 11-centimeter) by 0.39- to 0.98-inch (1- to 2.5-centimeter) three-clustered flowers.

Branch tips parade blue-green, saw-margined, spine-edged, spiral-arranged, sword-shaped, thorn-ribbed, waxy, yellow-striped 35.43- to 118.11-inch- (90- to 300-centimeter-) long, 1.97- to 6.29-inch- (5- to 16-centimeter-) wide foliage.

Hala tree botanical illustrations queue up 4.72- to 9.84-inch (12- to 25-centimeter) diameter trunks and multi-stemmed 6.56- to 59.06-foot (2- to 18-meter) canopy spreads and heights. Aerial-, prop-, soil-rooted hala trees require maximum 1,968.5-foot (600-meter) altitudes above sea level and temperatures between 75 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit (24 and 28 degrees Celsius). Twenty- to 80-year lifespans supply food, furnishings, housing and wearables in 59.06- to 157.48-inch (1,500- to 4,000-millimeter) mean annual rainfall and pHs of 6 to 10.

Fragrant, sheathed, table-set, white-yellow bracts; foliage-woven mats; hala tree botanical illustrations; hala trees in 30 to 50 percent backyard, sandy shade turn Danny into a local.

Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) with his new special task team partner Danny "Danno" Williams (Scott Caan), a recent New Jersey transplant for whom Hawaii seems "a pineapple-infected hellhole" and whose left arm bears a bullet grazing on his first day: Hawaii Five-0 @HawaiiFive0CBS, via Facebook June 2, 2010

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

hala (Pandanus tectorius) with fruit; Kuloa Point Trail, Haleakalā National Park, southeastern Maui: Jackie Frost/NPS photo, via National Park Service @ https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=1809C784-DE01-56B1-5C3F7E5E263C9624

Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) with his new special task team partner Danny "Danno" Williams (Scott Caan), a recent New Jersey transplant for whom Hawaii seems "a pineapple-infected hellhole" and whose left arm bears a bullet grazing on his first day: Hawaii Five-0 @HawaiiFive0CBS, via Facebook June 2, 2010, @ https://www.facebook.com/HawaiiFive0CBS/photos/a.124205470946271/124205594279592/

For further information:

Du Roi, Johann Philipp Du Roi. 1774. "63. Eawharra (6). Pondanus tectorius." Der Naturforscher, viertes stück [fourth volume]: 250. Halle, Germany: J.J. Gebauers Witwe und Joh. Jac. Gebauer [Johann Justinus Gebauer's widow and Johann Jakob Gebauer].
Available via Universität Bielefeld Universitätbibliothek Digital Collections @ http://ds.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/viewer/image/2108412_004/257/

Hawaii Five-0 @HawaiiFive0CBS. 2 June 2010. "Added a new photo." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/HawaiiFive0CBS/photos/a.124205470946271/124205594279592/

Kinsey, T. Beth. 2018. "Pandanus tectorius -- Hala." Wildlife of Hawaii > Plants > Hawaiian Plants and Tropical Flowers > Scientific Name.
Available via Wildlife of Hawaii @ https://wildlifeofhawaii.com/flowers/1091/pandanus-tectorius-hala/

"Pandanus tectorius." Native Plants Hawai'i > Search Plants > Search for Native Hawaiian Plants > Pandanus.
Available @ http://nativeplants.hawaii.edu/plant/view/Pandanus_tectorius

"Pandanus tectorius Parkinson." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/23900008

"Pandanus tectorius Parkinson ex Du Roi." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/100238838

Parkinson, Sydney. July 1773. Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty's Ship, the Endeavor. Faithfully Transcribed From the Papers of the Late Sydney Parkinson, Draughtsman to Joseph Banks, Esq. on His Late Expedition, With Dr. Solander, Round the World. Embellished With Views and Designs, Delineated by the Author, and Engraved by Capital Artists. London, England: Printed for Standfield Parkinson, the Editor, by Richardson and Urquhart, M.DCC.LXXIII.
Available via Library of Congress @ https://www.loc.gov/item/48033262/

"Pilot." Hawaii Five-O 2010: The First Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount, Sept. 20, 2010.

Thomson, Lex A.J.; Lois Englberger; Luigi Guarino; R.R. Thaman; and Craig R. Elevitch. April 2006. "Pandanus tectorius (pandanus)." Traditional Tree > Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry ver. 1.1.
Available via Agroforestry Net, Inc. @ http://www.agroforestry.net/images/pdfs/P.tectorius-pandanus.pdf