Category Archives: Flowers

Mauna Kea Silverswords

A Mauna Kea Silversword plsnt growing near the visitor center

Next door the Mauna Kea Visitor Center is an enclosed area where Mauna Kea Silverswords (Argyroxiphium sandwicense subsp. sandwicense) grow. These silverswords are closely related to species found on Mauna Loa and Haleakala on Maui. All silverswords are at risk of extinction. The reasons are the usual suspects: humans, feral sheep and goats, climate change. They also suffer from a lack of genetic diversity. The current burgeoning population of more than 8,000 has been produced from only six wild plants.

Silverswords can grow for 30 years or more, but once they bloom, they die. I haven’t seen a Mauna Kea Silversword blooming, but I was lucky enough to see Mauna Loa Silverswords blooming not long after I moved to the island (here). The second photo shows one of those plants in bloom. It was over six feet tall!

A silversword blooms on Mauna Loa.

Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #23

A Giant African Land Snail on the move in Hawaii
A Giant African Land Snail moves forward with purpose, if not speed.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 144. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #22

A Bristle-thighed Curlew snags a snack at Kiholo Hawaii
A Bristle-thighed Curlew moves forward to grab a breakfast snack.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 143. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

Plumerias

Plumeria flowers with buds in Hawaii

I was putting together some Plumeria photos on the theme of Burgeoning for Becky’s Squares (See more responses here), when I saw this one and realized that it took care of everything. This one flowering stem has many buds, new flowers beginning to open, and a couple of very fragrant blossoms. What more could one want!

Autograph collectors

Bees on an Autograph Tree flower in Hawaii

I was at Spencer Beach Park when I heard bees. Looking up, I saw them all over an open flower on one of the trees. I’ve never seen so many bees on the same flower at the same time. As they left, others would be moving forward to join the party.

The tree was an Autograph Tree (Clusia rosea), which is native to the Caribbean and is something of an invasive species here. It gets its name from its thick leaves with a thin green covering. Kids scratch their names into the leaves and watch as they grow with the leaves!

Autograph Tree leaves in Hawaii

Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #20

Moving forward. Having second thoughts!

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 141. Captions are on the photos.

You can see more responses here.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

An Hawaii Amakihi in a Mamane tree.
A Katydid says hi.