Costus lucanusianus is a native of tropical Africa. It’s also known as spiral ginger or African spiral flag. It’s related to true gingers and the ‘spiral’ in the name comes from the arrangement of the leaves on the stems.
This one was at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.
This unusual blue hibiscus was seen at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Edge.’ (See more offerings here.) My first thought was this image, but I hadn’t actually ever taken such a photo. So I took my camera outside and wandered around. It wasn’t long before I found an obliging gecko keeping a beady eye on my movements.
The reason I was confident of getting this photo is because this is a typical pose for geckos. They’re constantly peeking over the edge of roofs, around corners, and around the edge of the leaves they occupy. They’re constantly on the lookout for prey – and predators.
In this case, the gecko was on my side of the leaf when I approached, but zipped to the other side, before checking out what I was up to.
Hapu’u ferns uncoil alongside the Pu’u O’o Trail, off Saddle Road.
This praying mantis had been hanging out on this spider lily for a few days. I don’t know whether it was working hard there, but I did like how it mopped its brow in the second photo.
The spiky leaves of an aloe plant rise up menacingly.
I peered down into a spider lily one day and this is what I saw looking up at me, a gecko with wings. The wings, of course, were those of an unlucky moth, which the gold dust day gecko had snagged from behind. The moth struggled a good deal, but there was only ever going to be one winner in this contest.
Balloon plant (Asclepias physocarpa) is an invasive weed, introduced to Hawaii as a fiber crop. A member of the milkweed family, it is considered to have medicinal properties, but parts of the plant are also poisonous.
I saw several of these plants in a pasture occupied by livestock and, like the cow in the photo, they were avoiding the plants. Consequently, the pasture consisted of close-cropped grass and a generous sprinkling of these scrubby plants, 2- to 3-feet high, though they can grow to 6-feet tall.
The ‘balloons’ are actually the fruits of the plants. When ripe, they’ll burst and release a multitude of white silky-haired seeds.
Graham's Island 