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Lehua Flowering Progression
Posted: October 23, 2007
The distinctive shape and vibrant color of lehua add much to the ambiance of the native forest. I like to take close-up shots of lehua flowers to capture the different stages as their buds bloom into flowers, become pollinated and produce seed.
The term “lehua” usually refers to the flowers of ohia lehua, while the term “ohia” usually refers to the tree. Red is the most common lehua color in the native forest with a wide range of shades from crimson, fire engine red, and scarlet to the very boundaries of pink and orange.
Lehua blossoms are actually clusters of flowers that have long stamens and pistils. The petals of lehua are tiny and difficult to see at the base of the flower. When a cluster of buds flower at the same time, hundreds of long stamens and pistils shoot out together to produce the classic lehua pom-pom.
Sometimes the buds in a cluster are not synchronized and do not flower at the same time. They open-up one-by-one showing the progression of the flower as it blooms. Round buds open to reveal curled-up stamens that unwind and straighten themselves out. Stamens are the male part of the flower–they are anywhere from 28-32 stamens in a flower. At the tip of each stamen is the anther which matures and opens to release the yellow pollen.
Each flower has a single pistil in the middle which is the female part of the flower. It is usually thicker and slightly longer extending further out above the pom-pom. The very tip of the pistil is the stigma which is the part that is pollinated.
After the flowers are pollinated, all the stamens fall-off the flower leaving behind a single red pistil. The seeds of the next generation have been pollinated and will begin to develop within the green star shaped calyx.
As the seeds grow inside the ovary, the green star-shaped calyx expands and swells in size.
When the seeds are mature, the calyxes begin to dry out slowly.
When the calyxes dry out they split open to release hundreds of lehua seeds. The seeds are tiny, no bigger than a grain of sand. and are easily airborne and dispersed.