Hau Hawaiian Sea Hibiscus, Ma'a Hawaiian Sling, Five-0's Way of the Gun

Summary: The way of the gun on Hawaii Five-0's Ke Ala O Ka Pu April 5, 2019, axed an ancient way of a ma'a Hawaiian sling assembled from hau Hawaiian sea hibiscus.

closeup of trunk of Hawaiian sea hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus), known as hau in Hawaiian; Hawaiians fashioned ma'a (slings) from the hau tree; Mai Poina Oe'la'u Beach, northern Kihei, south central Maui; image #010309-0529; Friday, March 9, 2001, 10:21: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

The way of a ma'a Hawaiian sling assembled from hau Hawaiian sea hibiscus antedates the way of the gun on Hawaii Five-0 series episode Ke Ala O Ka Pu April 5, 2019.

Director David Straiton and writer Paul Grellong base Season 9's 20th episode upon an 'ōlelo a'o (advice) about French, Japanese and Spanish battles against Pacific Islanders. The series' 213rd episode overall considers the consequences of one gun upon Hawaii Five-0 Task Force and Honolulu Police Department select members' personal and professional lives. Do hau Hawaiian sea hibiscus five-parted red styles, maroon-hearted corollas, pink-green triangular sepals and reddening 1.58- to 2.36-inch- (4- to 6-centimeter-) long petals symbolically divulge gun-slinging?

Perhaps reddening hau Hawaiian sea hibiscus flowers symbolically express tragic encounters since Ruy López de Villalobos' (1500?-April 4, 1544) Spanish colonialist explorations around Hawaii in 1542.

Ali'i chiefs and nobles, kahuna navigators and priests, koa warriors and maka'āinana commoners fit into ancient traditional Hawaiian society with their own na mea kaua (weapons).

Helmeted royals, such as King Kamemeha I (1736?-May 8?, 1819), got black-, red-, yellow-feathered capes for bullfighter-like moves with left hands and spears for right hands. Haka Hawaiian martial dances and lua Hawaiian martial arts helped armorless, loin-clothed warriors hone aalolo (pressure-point attacks), hakihaki (bone-breaking), hakoko (wrestling), kuikui (punching) and peku (kicking). Commoner and warrior weaponry respectively involved niho 'oki (knives) and 'ō'ō (sticks); and ihe (spears), ka'ane (garrotes), kao lele (darts), ko'oko'o (canes) and ku'eku'e lima (knuckles).

Warriors juggled la'au and newa (clubs), leiomano (slashers), ma'a āla (sling stones), maka and pāhoa (daggers), pahi (knives), pahi kaua (swords), pokoi (tripwires) and pololu (pikes).

Warriors perhaps kept as their deadliest weapon the ma'a Hawaiian sling of hau Hawaiian sea hibiscus with a dense, filed, sculpted, 200-plus-yard (182.88-plus-meter) accurate volcanic rock.

Each hau Hawaiian sea hibiscus beaked, brown, dry fruit capsule lodges five to 15 brown-black, hairy, kidney-shaped, rough, 0.12- to 0.19-inch- (3- to 5-millimeter-) long seeds. It manifests five-sectioned, oval, 0.79-inch- (2-centimeter-) long capsules after cup-shaped, drooping, one-day, orange-red-yellow one- to six-flowered clusters amid glossy-green, heart-shaped, wavy leaves with fuzzy, gray-green undersides. Hibiscus tiliaceus (from Greek ἱβίσκος, "marsh mallow" and Latin tilia, "linden" and -āceus, "resembling") nets five-petaled, five-sepaled, five-styled, 3.94- to 5.91-inch- (10- to 15-centimeter-) wide flowers.

Sea hibiscus, observed by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), offers 3.15- to 7.87-inch (8- to 20-centimeter) by 2.36- to 5.91-inch (6- to 15-centimeter) leaves.

Twenty-plus-year hau Hawaii sea hibiscus life cycles produce 13.12- to 65.62-foot (4- to 20-meter) heights and spreads and 5.91- to 19.69-inch (15- to 50-centimeter) trunk diameters.

Hau Hawaiian hibiscus qualifies as coconut leaf-hopper (Myndus taffini) and taro corm rot (Pythium) hosts and pink mealybug (Maconellicoccus hirsutus) and rose beetle (Adoretus sinicus) prey. It requires brackish-watered, fresh-watered, coastal, mangrove, riverbank, swamp clayey, crushed-basalt, limestone, loamy, marl, sandy soil pHs between 5 and 8.5 at sea-level through 2,624.67-foot (800-meter) altitudes. It survives mean annual 35.43- to 98.42-inch (900- to 2,500-millimeter) rainfall and semi-shaded, sunny temperatures between 53.6 and 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit (12 and 32 degrees Celsius).

The native ma'a Hawaiian sling, unlike non-native guns, tendered fibers locally woven from brown-gray, semi-fissured bark over hau Hawaiian sea hibiscus white sapwood and brown-green heartwood.

Hawaii Five-0 Task Force members assemble at Hawaii Five-0 headquarters in CBS TV's Hawaii Five-0 season 9, episode 20, Ke Ala O Ka Pu: CBS Hawaii Five-0 episode 9.20 promotional photo via SpoilerTV March 26, 2019

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

closeup of trunk of Hawaiian sea hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus), known as hau in Hawaiian; Hawaiians fashioned ma'a (slings) from the hau tree; Mai Poina Oe'la'u Beach, northern Kihei, south central Maui; image #010309-0529; Friday, March 9, 2001, 10:21: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Starr_010309-0529_Hibiscus_tiliaceus.jpg; Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 4.0 International, via Starr Environmental @ http://www.starrenvironmental.com/images/image/?q=24236468110; Forest and Kim Starr (Starr Environmental), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/starr-environmental/24236468110/

Hawaii Five-0 Task Force members assemble at Hawaii Five-0 headquarters in CBS TV's Hawaii Five-0 season 9, episode 20, Ke Ala O Ka Pu: CBS Hawaii Five-0 episode 9.20 promotional photo via SpoilerTV March 26, 2019, @ https://www.spoilertv.com/2019/03/hawaii-five-0-episode-920-ke-ala-o-ka.html

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