Tag Archives: Bamboo

Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Animal or Bird in farm or zoo.’ See more responses here.

Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo, in Hilo, is the only zoo on the island. It’s quite small, but is definitely a family-friendly destination. We like to visit once in a while to see the zoo’s star attractions, Sriracha and Tzatziki, a pair of Bengal Tigers. Captions are on the photos.

An Emu at Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, in Hilo, Hawaii — An Emu having a good hair day.

A Red Tegu lizard at Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, in Hilo, Hawaii — An Emu having a good hair day.

Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtles at Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, in Hilo, Hawaii — Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtles.

Tzatziki, a white tiger at Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, in Hilo, Hawaii — Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtles.

This is one of the many benches in the zoo representing animals that live there. These are ‘Alalās, the endemic Hawaiian Crow. There are no longer any ‘Alalās in the wild and just over a hundred in captivity. The building behind this bench is one of the few places where these birds are bred, with a view to reintroducing them in the wild. So far, attempts to do this have failed, for a variety of reasons including disease and predation. One of the current projects is a release on Maui where Ios, Hawaiian hawks, a major predator of ‘Alalās, are no longer found.

The Numbers Game #118

A small cruise ship sails off the coast of the Big Island in Hawaii at sunset — A small cruise ship sails off the coast of the Big Island at sunset.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 240. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A Pueo, or Hawaiian short-eared owl, sits on a post beside Old Saddle Road on the Big Island. — A Pueo on alert.

A pair of Hawiian Stilts at the Kaloko Fishpond at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park. — A Pueo on alert.

A clump of Beechey bamboo on the Big Island of Hawaii — A stand of Beechey Bamboo.

Cows are rounded up for milking on one of the Big Island’s two remaining dairy farms. — A stand of Beechey Bamboo.

Shades of orange and yellow

The morning sun illuminates clouds over Kohala in Hawaii — Early morning clouds over Kohala.

This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge is ‘Ocher, saffron (yellow hues), plus burnt orange.’ See more responses here.

A dirt road at Kaiholena, Hawaii — A dirt road at Kaiholena.

One of the Keawaiki golden pools in Hawaii — A dirt road at Kaiholena.

Colorful pahoehoe lava at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii — Colorful pahoehoe lava.

Golden Bamboo in Hawaii — Colorful pahoehoe lava.

The Numbers Game #86

Cattle Egrets fly past the wind turbines at Hawi Wind Farm.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 208. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Water cascades down the rocks on the North Kohala coast.

A converted school bus in Hawaii — Water cascades down the rocks on the North Kohala coast.

A gold dust day gecko and green anole on yellow bamboo — A Gold Dust Day Gecko and Green Anole on yellow bamboo.

Akaka Falls bamboo

Bamboo arches over a stream in Akaka Falls State Park.

The Numbers Game #66

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 187. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A view of the base of the petioles of a Traveler’s Palm (*Ravenala madagascariensis*).

My tropical garden

A tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fabulous Florals.’ See more responses here. For this, I’m taking a short jaunt off the island to revisit the first tropical garden I planted. That was in Washington State. Now, I’m aware that Washington State isn’t in the tropics, but I like a challenge.

My goal was to create a garden of hardy tropical-looking plants, with colorful flowers and/or big, bountiful foliage. The first summer, I laid the foundations with three Windmill Palms and a wall of bamboo alongside one fence. Colorful canna lillies and big foliage gave an inkling of what was to come.

A canna lily in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington — Canna Lily-Tropicanna

Solanum laciniatum and Castor Bean-Carmencita Red in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington — Canna Lily-Tropicanna

The second summer was when the garden took off. Ground covers spread. Vines took off. Pots provided focal points.

The leaf of a Musa Basjoo banana in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), Asiatic Lily-Red orange, Phygelius x recturs ‘Cherry Ripe’ - Cape Fuchsia in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Tropical foliage in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Helianthemum ‘Bright Spot’ and Canna - Omega in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Plants in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Sedum lydium in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Sedum spath ‘Cape Blanco’ in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Honeysuckle-Gold Flame in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A cat sits next Eccremocarpus scaber – Chilean glory vine in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

And of course, there were those fabulous florals.

Hardy Lily-Stargazer in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Clianthus puniceus in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Sedum spurium ‘Fuldaglut’, Agastache ‘Apricot Sunrise’ in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A bee on a sunflower in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Phygelius x recturs ‘Cherry Ripe’ - Cape Fuchsia flowers in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Crocosmia masoniorum - Montbretia in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A yellow Asiatic Lily in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Brugmansia ‘Charles Grimaldi’ in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A red flower in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Embothrium coccineum in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

One corner of the garden featured a Dicksonia Antarctica tree fern, which was soon joined by a Dicentra Scandens-Golden tears vine, Eccremocarpus scaber – Chilean glory vine, and a Clematis Armandii. There’s less than a month between the second and third photos in the gallery below, and the following summer the area was rampant with color and growth.

A Dicksonia Antarctica tree fern is planted in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A Dicksonia Antarctica tree fern, Dicentra Scandens-Golden tears vine, Eccremocarpus scaber – Chilean glory vine, Clematis Armandii in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

But it is Washington State and there are winters and in the winter it can snow. The palms and bamboo bent low under the weight of the snow, but they survived. The tiki torch looked distinctly unhappy with the weather, possibly jealous of those lucky plants that were moved indoors for the winter.

Snow on a windmill palm during winter in Port Townsend, Washington

Snow on bamboo during winter in Port Townsend, Washington

Abstracts: Arching bamboo

Giant stalks of bamboo arch overhead creating a delicate green umbrella under the blue Hawaiian sky.

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii