| The transportation of the most useful plants of Pacific Oceania allowed for the perpetuation of many ethnobotanical practices in Polynesian culture. One objective of this project was to look at different wrapping techniques of traditional cultigens on a voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti. Plant propagules were stored in both moist conditions using natural wrapping materials, and dry conditions using natural materials. A comparison of the survival rates of cultigens in moist conditions to dry conditions demonstrate no significant differences on a canoe voyage of 23 days. Further, the absence or presence of new growth on the cultigens did not vary significantly between these two variables. The second objective was to simulate this experiment in a project with high school students. By wrapping and storing canoe plant propagules on their canoe, then out planting them to observe viability, they combined the scientific method with an exploration of history. |
