Category Archives: Flowers

The scenery is greenery

Foliage at Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve and Garden

This week’s Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge is ‘Green.’ See more responses here. One of my favorite spots on the island is Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden and I stopped by there again just last week. As luck would have it, I took a few photos – OK, more than 200; I can’t help it. Many of them – OK, all of them – featured some shade of green. It is a tropical garden after all. Here’s a selection.

All sorts of greens, all sorts of patterns!

Going green. That’s what fronds are for!

Why the long faces? things are looking up.

There’s a gecko in two of these photos. There’s probably geckos in all three, but two are visible.

For more information about Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden, go to htbg.com.

Bee on Lantana

A bee forages on a colorful Lantana flower.

Prickly pear cactus

I still find it strange to see cacti in Hawaii. Stranger still is seeing them in flower like this prickly pear cactus on the Kohala coast.

Japanese White-eye

A Japanese White-eye explores the flowers of an Agave Attenuata.

Monkeypod flowers

The flowers of a monkeypod tree in Hawaii

These are the pretty pink flowers of the Monkeypod tree (Albizia saman), a large shade tree that is widespread and very popular in Hawaii.

A splash of color

A day lily grows in the roots of a banyan tree in Hawaii

I noticed this Day Lily while I was driving and was moved to return and take some photos. I liked how the flowers stood out in the tangle of roots of a very large Banyan tree.

Praying Mantis waiting

This Praying Mantis spent several days on this Agave Attenuata, waiting patiently for food. There were bees all over the flowers and I think the mantis got some of them, as well as other insects.

I presumed the mantis was a female as it seemed to be getting bigger. A couple of days after taking these photos, the mantis disappeared but I saw an egg sac on a nearby tree, so maybe there will be more on the way!

Java Sparrow juvenile on a bottlebrush

A Java Sparrow on a bottlebrush in Hawaii

I see Java Sparrows quite often, but I’d never seen a juvenile until I took this top photo. The bird has the look but not much of the coloration, just a bit of pink in the bill and around the eye. The adult, in the second photo, shows the distinctive markings still to come.

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii