Category Archives: Plants

Yellow plume flower

Yellow plume flower (Justicia aurea) hails from Mexico and Central America. This one was at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.

For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.

Solanum linnaeanum

Solanum linnaeanum is also known here as apple of Sodom, and in other places as devil’s apple. These names are a sure sign that the plant is not well regarded. It has prickly leaves, poisonous tomato-like berries, and grows like a weed in pasture lands. That’s where I found this one, next to an old corral.

Hawaiian blue butterfly

This endemic Hawaiian blue butterfly was flitting around at the Palila Forest Discovery Trail, on the southwest flank of Mauna Kea. This one is, I think, a female with its bright underside and uniformly brown top.

The butterfly is also known as the Koa butterfly, since its caterpillar feeds on that tree. I don’t think Koa trees are found in the trail area, but ‘A‘ali‘i (Dodonaea viscosa), an indigenous Hawaiian plant, does grow there and that’s another plant the caterpillar will eat.

Zebra plant

There are several plants known as zebra plant, all with strongly patterned foliage. This one is Calathea zebrina var. humilior.

Trail to Honokane Nui Valley

I wrote a while ago (here) about the precipitous, rope-aided section of the trail to Honokane Nui Valley, east of Pololu. Surviving that section does offer the reward of the rest of the trail, which passes through tree-shaded clearings, tropical-leafed tunnels, and bamboo canyons. Try not to think of the haul back up.