Dispatches from Volcano: Monday, February 15, 2021 Into the forest

Fickle is the weather. Sun warm breezy rain chill cloud mist bluesky repeat. Keeps life interesting. All in all a good time to be here. Spent four hours strolling through Kīpukapuaulu yesterday. Even for me, a long time there. I first visited in the mid-70s, when it looked and felt a lot different. It was more park-like then; something I enjoyed, because I like long sight-lines. Helps me figure out where I am. Darkish forests with closed canopies arenʻt a favorite of this claustrophobic.

Photos for this post are either attributed, or mine and those shared by kc and jc. Mahalo piha!

One can barely make out the loop trail (the faint white line), as well as the picnic area at the lower right edge of the kīpuka. Despite the ecological changes during the last nearly 50 years Iʻve known it, Kīpukapuaulu fascinates still. Most of the big old ʻōhiʻa are dead, a consequence of that cocktail of maladies affecting ʻōhia: natural dieback, old age, drought, maybe some ROD (rapid ʻohia death), and various bugs all contribute to decline of the forest. Big koa are falling over too. Remember: We have many many "recently" introduced diseases and insect pests. Itʻs all part of evolution of ecosystems, of which now, humans play a big role.

What follows are lots of photos, nearly all from yesterday. Our group was small: 5 adults and 4 keiki, all living in small bubbles. Being in the forest allowed breaths of fresh air. One passing shower nearly drenched us, but then the sun came out, and dried us all off.

While leading ethnobotany walks through the kīpuka over decades, Iʻd stop at favorite plant friends to visit, notice who was blooming or fruiting, and share insight with those accompanying me. In the meantime, trees have died, the character of the vegetation has changed, and yesterday Iʻd often stop and wonder: Where am I? Where was that?

The first thing, where you walk left at the intersection: hōlei. Related to plumeria and maile, flowers are tiny and fragrant. And theyʻre in bloom.

botany.hawaii.edu

Pull a stem of a grass inflorescence, and use that to kui (string) the delicate pua found scattered and hiding in the underlying grass. "Make with what get" friends and I understand.

We saw that a tangle of maile, a mass of heavy vines climbing a slender small tree, had recently toppled. From a drying branch I picked a shoot to share the scent of milky sap. Maile is a favorite lei, its aroma coming from bark bruised when you ʻuʻu (strip it) from long tender tendrils. Most of the maile in Kīpukapuaulu has short woody twigs not suitable for lei.

ʻAlaʻala wai nui grows terrestrially (on the ground), and as an epiphyte up in trees. Two different species, two different habitats, right next to each other.

The terrestrial one, above, has a secret. Undersides of its leaves are flecked with red.

And the epiphitic one simply grows out of cracks in tree bark.

Pāpala kēpau is a smallish tree with big wavy-edged leaves. Its fruits are VERY sticky and were used in some places by some kia manu (bird catchers) to ensnare the feet of birds as they landed on favorite perches.

Below, pāpala kēpau at the bottom with brownish liko (young shoots), and fruit stuck on leaves. The portion of the leave above belongs to mānele, a native (not endemic) soapberry.

Below are two images of a member of the Coffee Family: ʻŌpiko (as I learned it while growing up), or kōpiko in the rest of the pae ʻāina. A favorite characteristic is that the opposite (as opposed to alternate) young leaves clasp each other as they grow and mature. See the raindrop caught between them?

A koa had toppled next to the path, allowing access to the tangle of higher branches clothed in a shaggy lichen. We know that itʻs a fruticose lichen [See below for other categories], Usnea australis. Thanks, lp for the ID. When I studied taxonomy, flowering plants were fine, but I did not enjoy keying out grasses. Flowers are too too tiny. And there are so very many lichens, I didnʻt even begin to learn them. A common name for this one is (I suppose appropriately) old manʻs beard!

Those circular structures, below, are fruiting bodies. Lichens are a combination of fungus and algae, and so donʻt produce seeds, as flowering plants do.

Both images below from ucmp.berkeley.edu

And since the lichens were on koa, hereʻs a shot of a young branch tip. Chartreuse? Lime green?

And those are true, compound leaves, rather than the sickle-shaped phyllodes (flattened petioles or leaf stems) most associate with koa.

And while on the topic of color, a favorite:

Surprising pick of young lau kōlea. This is what I call the "regular" kōlea, as opposed to kōlea lau nui (big-leafed kōlea), or kōlea lau liʻi (small-leafed kōlea). The latter two grow in other areas of the park.

Might be kinda hard to see below, but that dark mass is a big old kōlea with lots of pink liko. The shiny-leafed tree behind is koa.

A couple of unusual ferns that attracted our attention are below. First, I think might be holly fern (Cyrtomium falcatum), an introduced species. See all the round dot spore cases on the back of the stiff, dark green frond?

And then a sorta droopy Asplenium contiguum, which is endemic. The needle-like spore cases are unusual and prettily decorative.

Just gotta BeOutside and PayAttention. Touch, smell, look underneath, up, down... You can discern a lot about the forest above you if you pay attention to the ground. Leaf litter, fallen flowers...all are clues.

Ferns to Fungus...and kinda apropos, because just had Lunar New Year, and I ate jai (go google), and had pepeiao inside. Crunchy ono-ness... Itʻs a rare event to see pepeiao in Kīpukapuaulu. Conditions have to be just so... The right substrate, weather, rain, etc...

Pepeiao is a wood ear fungus, and edible, as are many mushrooms. Theyʻre a favorite in some Chinese dishes.

Pepeiao means "ear" in Hawaiian. See why? And I love that just like our ears, light from behind makes them sorta glow... Once we saw the first ones, we paid closer attention, and folks started seeing them on the floor, fallen from overhead. What a treat...

Above, a festooned rotting log leaning on swordfern (lower left) and palapalai fern (upper right).

Weʻll do a few more plants next time (Wednesday). Tomorrow, no foget, is malasadas!

Yesterday evening, some ventured to Kūpinaʻi to try see Her glowing. They werenʻt disapponted. A very quickly changing scene, with roiling clouds, mists, and vapors, but one has to be patient. From 632p to 704p, a little more than half an hour...