Squirrel’s tail (Justicia betonica) is a fairly common plant on the Big Island. It can grow into a quite large shrub with pink flowers on distinctive stalks. This one offered a handy perch for a Japanese white-eye.
Category Archives: Flowers
Morinda citrifolia
Morinda citrifolia is also known as Noni or Indian Mulberry. The flowers generally have 5 lobes, but this can vary, as this plant shows. The flowers emerge from what will become the fruit, which will end up white or yellowish.
The fruit is edible and used for medicinal purposes, but usually in a juiced form. There’s a good reason for this. As is noted on Wildlife of Hawaii’s plant page, “The ripe, white fruit has a nauseatingly bad smell, very much like fresh vomit mixed with rancid garbage. Avoid smelling it if you have a weak stomach.” Duly noted!
This plant was next to one of the Golden Ponds of Keawaiki.
Hibiscus tiliaceus
Hibiscus tiliaceus is called hau here. This large shrub was growing at the Golden Ponds of Keawaiki, which is a little oasis in a wasteland of lava. The different colored flowers, on the same plant, occur because the flowers only last for a day. They start out yellow and turn to red or orange as the day progresses.
Pinkhead smartweed
This cheerful, but somewhat weedy plant grows along roadsides. It’s particularly striking on Saddle Road where it adds color to the otherwise lava-rich landscape. Also, I like the name. It sounds like the not-too-bright son of a moneyed family on the east coast.
Signs: Without authorization
I assume this was once a no admittance sign, but I like this sign the way it is. Perhaps these are unauthorized ohia trees growing rogue.
Variable lady beetles
A pair of variable lady beetles mating on the underside of a leaf on a passion flower vine.
Naio
Naio (Myoporum sandwicense) used to grow in great abundance in Hawaii, but now is much less common. It has some similarities to true sandalwood and was passed off as the latter without much success, leading to it’s other names of false sandalwood or, less sympathetically, bastard sandalwood.
This small tree was found growing on the lower slopes of Mauna Kea.
Agave sisalana
The leaves of agave sisalana are used to produce sisal fiber, which is used in making ropes amongst other things. However, what draws attention are the tall flower stems reaching 15 or 20 feet into the air. Around here, strong winds often blow the stems over, temporarily blocking roads and driveways.
