Category Archives: Plants

Shell ginger flower

A shell ginger flower opens to reveal a striking red and yellow interior.A shell ginger flower
The shell ginger flower has delicate pink blooms, which give the plant its name. But these pink flowers open to reveal striking red and yellow interiors. This one has attracted a couple of ants.

Bee on fireweed flower

A honey bee on a fireweed flower on the Big Island

Last week I posted here about the fireweed biocontrol moth, secusio extensa, which has been introduced into Hawaii in an attempt to control the spread of invasive fireweed (Senecio madagascariensis). On that same walk I saw lots of fireweed flowers such as this one, busily being helped to propagate by this bee. Such is the battlefield.

Degarmoara Winter Wonderland ‘White Fairy’

A Degarmoara Winter Wonderland 'White Fairy' orchid grows in the branches of a mandarin orange tree.
Apparently, there are around 8 billion different kinds of orchid. That, of course, doesn’t include hybrids. In my efforts to identify this flower, I tried all kinds of descriptions in my online search engine – ‘white orchid, purple spots,’ ‘epiphyte orchid, white with purple,’ ‘white and purple epiphyte.”

No matter what I tried I didn’t see anything that matched. I rifled through books at the library without success. Finally, I found a book, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids edited by Alec Pridgeon, that also failed to solve my problem. But the photos in the book did seem to indicate that this flower might be an oncidium orchid.

So I searched for ‘oncidium orchid, white with purple spots’ and voila, there it was. Of course, this being orchids, some photos were identified as ‘White Wonderland.’ Others referred to it as ‘Aliceara Winter Wonderland “White Fairy.”’ I plumped for ‘Degarmoara Winter Wonderland “White Fairy”’ because that appeared to be the more numerous choice. In the world of orchids, there seem to be varying opinions as to which plant fits in which species.

Now the only question is, how did this orchid come to be growing deep in the branches of a tangerine tree?

Secusio extensa – fireweed biocontrol moth

A Secusio extensa moth on a yarrow plant.A Secusio extensa moth on a yarrow plant.
While out on a walk, I came across a patch of yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and thought the patterns made by the flowers would make a good photo. So I chose an individual plant to focus on and by good fortune found this moth hanging off the side.

The moth is Secusio extensa (I’ve also seen it referred to as Galtara extensa) and it hails from Madagascar. While this begins to smack of another invasive species, in fact this moth was deliberately introduced to the Hawaii in 2012. The reason for that is that the moth’s larvae feed on fireweed (Senecio madagascariensis) and fireweed is a truly bad invasive species here. Besides spreading in a prolific manner, it’s poisonous to livestock.

What I particularly liked about this individual was that it appeared to be enraptured by the yarrow plant, bobbing its head up and down continuously. I also loved its comb-like antennae, which are more properly known as pectinate antennae.