These dense trees can be found in the vicinity of Kilauea Volcano and show that nature thrives if it is spared by the lava flows. This view reminds me of broccoli.
Category Archives: Abstracts
Abstracts: Clouds on the water
Clouds over the ʻAlenuihāhā Channel, between the Big Island and Maui, cast strong shadows on the waters below.
Abstracts: Cruise ship windows
Every week, a cruise ship drops anchor off Kailua Kona and passengers are ferried ashore to explore the delights of the town or to go on tours of the island. While it’s there, the ship dwarfs the town.
This image shows a section of the ships side, row upon row of cabin windows. Technically, one might be expected to refer to these as portholes, but I don’t think that applies to cruise ships, which are basically giant floating hotels.
Abstracts: Bromeliad leaves
A look into the dark heart of a bromeliad plant. Is that something down there, looking back?
Abstracts: Tall trees
I think these are Cook pines, but what I liked was that there was a long line of extremely tall trees that formed this abstract kind of wall.
Abstracts: Katydid
Just a straightforward ‘Spot the katydid’ photo. I was sorting some older photos and I had to look at this one more than once to figure out what was going on.
Abstracts: Cascade
A breaking wave cascades down a colorful rock face on the coast.
Abstracts: Rainbow Falls banyans
The main attraction of Wailuku River State Park, in Hilo, is Rainbow Falls. But at the top of the hill are these huge banyan trees.
Banyans are not just a huge sprawl of branches, but a sprawl of roots, too. As epiphytes they begin life growing on other trees, from seeds dispersed there by birds. Over time, they send roots down to the ground, known as prop roots, which help support the mass of branches.
Banyan trees are also known as strangler figs because their roots and branches will ultimately overwhelm the host tree and kill it. Eventually, the dead host will decay and leave a hollow center to the banyan tree that’s left.
By continuing to send down prop roots, banyans grow out as well as up. Very old trees can cover a huge area. For example, the Great Banyan Tree in Kolkata, India is more than 250 years old. Its covers around four acres and has more than 3,500 prop roots. Here in Hawaii, the largest banyan grows in Lahaina on Maui. Planted in 1873, it now has 16 main trunks and covers two thirds of an acre.
The Rainbow Falls trees aren’t that large, but they’re coming along nicely.
Graham's Island 