Jeweled anemone crab

My wife spotted this crab scuttling quite rapidly along the floor of the bay where we were snorkeling. It was clearly some kind of hermit crab, but it was quite deep and this was the best photo I got.

When we got home, I looked through my copy of John P. Hoover’s Hawaii Sea Creatures and the jeweled anemone crab seemed the most likely identity. As can be seen in the photo, the shell is covered with anemones which is a feature of these crabs. Since these crabs are mostly night feeders, we were lucky to see one still active in the early morning. Possibly it had been disturbed and was headed to a new hiding place.

Lava trees

Lava Tree State Monument is in the southeast part of the island, within half a mile of the edge of last year’s flow. As the name suggests, it has some good examples of lava trees.

Lava trees are formed when molten lava coats a tree, burning the wood, and leaving just the cooling lava shell that surrounded it. There are two ways this can happen. One is when a flow surrounds the trees and then drains away. The other way is for falling lava to cover and burn the trees.

The lava trees in Lava Tree State Monument were formed by the first of these two methods. A lava flow in 1790, as high as 11 feet, surrounded ohia trees in this part of the island, and burned the wood away. When new fissures opened soon after, the lava in this flow drained back underground, but the lava immediately surrounding the trees had cooled enough that it was already hardening, so it remained, retaining each tree’s shape in its center.

The photos show lava trees in the park, a closer view of one showing the hollow center, and a view of the hollow core where new plant life is taking hold. In some cases, this new plant life is new trees growing out of the old, hollow lava trees.

For more information about Lava Tree State Monument, go to https://hawaiistateparks.org/parks/hawaii/lava-tree-state-monument/.

Cattle egrets on a gate

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Gate.’ (See more offerings here.) I remembered these two cattle egrets, on a gate separating two cattle pastures. I like how the birds seem to be engaged, like a couple of neighbors talking over the garden fence, or in this case, on the fence.

Also, I like the feet of the bird perched on the gate. Makes me feel like my feet are positively dainty!

Spathiphyllum ‘Power Petite’

Spathiphyllum ‘Power Petite’ is one of the spathiphyllums better known as peace lilies. These aren’t true lilies. Instead, they’re members of the Araceae family.

Peace lilies are popular houseplants because they’re easy to grow and they’re great air cleaners, filtering out a number of pollutants from the air.