Ohia trees growing in lava 
Ohia trees growing in lava 
Ohia roots growing in a lava tube 
Aerial toots
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Geometric–explore various angles.’ I’ve focused more on the ‘various angles’ than the geometric.
Ohia trees (Metrosideros polymorpha) are endemic to Hawaii and the flower of these trees is the official flower of the Big Island. Depending on growing conditions, ohias can vary from ground hugging shrubs to 50 foot trees. They grow at sea level and at elevations up to 8,000 feet. They’re probably most noted for two things. One is their brilliant display of flowers. The other is that they’re usually the first plants to recolonize lava flows.
They grow in lava is because their roots reach down into lava tubes and tap into the moisture available there. But ohia can also put out aerial roots to gather moisture. They’re very flexible in this way.
Buds form 
Stamens emerging 
An ohia flower
The puffball flowers are actually clusters of flowers. Each flower is made up of a bunch of stamens (the male part of the flower) and a single pistil (the female part) which is thicker and longer than the stamens. When the flowers have been pollinated, the stamens fall away until only the pistil remains. This too will disappear as the calyx, where the seeds are found, develops. Eventually, the calyx will dry out and release the tiny mature seeds, to be dispersed by the winds, and hopefully grow into new ohia trees.
The stamens fall off… 
… until only the pistils remain. 
The calyx dries out… 
… Ready to release seed 
Different stages of ohia flowers can be seen on a tree at the same time
Also posted in response to Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Trees.’ See more responses here.
What interesting plants. They vaguely remind me of some of our proteas but I looked them up and they are not even vaguely related. I did find that there is one Metrosideros species native to South Africa (in the fynbos biome) and it is regarded as an outlier. The plant being somewhat unfamiliar in SA and resembling other invasive aliens is often mistakenly identified and unappreciated, poor thing!
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Ohias are iconic here, but currently suffering from a new fungal disease. Hopefully, their situation will stabilize and improve soon.
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Absolutely.. I read somewhere that climate change in some circumstances can be a driver of new fungal diseases – hopefully not in this case though.
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Not sure where this one came from. It seemed to take everyone by surprise.
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Fascinating!
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Amazing Trees Graham 🙂 🙂
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Thanks Brian. They’re often a splash of color in an otherwise gray landscape
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Clever tree, and beautiful flowers. The various directions for the roots points to a true survivor. I thought lava might be rich in nutrients, leading to huge trees and a mass of vegetation of all kinds.
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It is rich in nutrients and eventually, if there’s enough rainfall, it will be covered by abundant tropical foliage. Ohia is important because it can get established in the bare lava by drawing moisture from the lava tubes below ground.
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what an incredible tree. Nature knows what it is doing when it comes to evolution!
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It has been very successful but is currently being attacked by a new fungus. Hopefully the trees will get though this and come back stronger than ever.
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oh no that’s not so good – guess fungus has arrived from elsewhere
And thank you so much for all the extra info in response to my comments on the actual pictures. I have learnt so much today 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed the post, Becky. There are two strain of the fungus and it’s known that they arrived from elsewhere, but where and how is not known.
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Well, I see lots of geometric angles here, Graham! Orbs, squares, lines, triangles…all here! The Ohia has it all. No missed mark at all! Surprising amounts of angles in nature, well done, my friend!
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Thanks for the kind words. You’re right about the angles in nature.
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They are beautiful, Graham, and so resourceful!
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They’re a pretty tree, especially against the stark lava. They’ve been hardy too, but currently are under the cosh from a new fungus that’s killing a lot of trees.
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