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Native Flowers on Aiea Ridge
Posted: September 18, 2009
I joined the trail maintenance crew of the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC) to clear the Aiea Ridge Trail that leads to the Koolau Summit Ridge.
The Aiea Ridge Trail is a 12 mile round trip that gains over 1,500 feet in elevation. We started our hike on the Aiea Loop Trail and then turned onto Aiea Ridge to reach the top of the Koolau Mountains at a point overlooking the Valley of the Temples.
Jay Feldman and Chris Godwin hike pass a patch of ieie vines (Freycinetia arborea) in full bloom with bright pink-orange flowers.
Also known as the screwpalm, ‘ie’ie grow in patches that often climb trees by twisting themselves up tree trunks. They are indigenous to Hawaii and other Pacific islands.
Large koa (Acacia koa) and ohia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) trees dominate the initial portions of the ridge. It was a cloudy day and brief rain showers fell multiple times as we made our way up the trail.
Hapuu tree ferns (Cibotium sp.) thrive in the understory of ohia lehua trees along the trail.
Uluhe ferns (Dicranopteris linearis) clogged the way as we made our way up and down several hills along the trail. The greater part of our work involved cutting back the ferns to reopen the swath.
Views of H-3 and the sound of highway traffic accompanied us until we contoured over to a neighboring ridge to continue our ascent to the summit. Ieie vines twist themselves up an ohia lehua tree in the foreground as the H-3 enters a tunnel through the Koolau Mountains.
Aiea Ridge is unique in that many of the yellow lehua are Metrosideros macropus, a species of ohia lehua that is endemic only to the island of Oahu.
While photographing the yellow lehua, I was thrilled when a pinao (dragonfly) with black, yellow and orange markings landed on a nearby branch. I believe this to be a native dragonfly — the shape of its long thin abdomen is distinctive — just like the endemic dragonfly Nesogonia blackburnii.
Several false summits dashed our hopes until we finally climbed to the top of the first helicopter landing zone. As we rested briefly to catch our breaths, clouds descended from the summit and shrouded the landscape in a gentle mist.
The vegetation on the ridge changes dramatically beyond the helipad — the plants are windblown, stunted, and close to the ground. I was pleased to see many purple mountain naupaka or naupaka kuahiwi (Scaevola mollis) as I made my way to the summit.
When we reached the second helicopter landing zone at the summit, thick clouds blocked all views of the windward coast two thousand feet below. While I was disappointed at the lack of view, I was pleased to have seen an assortment of native flowers and had a great time hiking in the clouds. What a great place to explore!
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SOURCES
Native Hawaiian Plants, University of Hawaii, Department of Botany
Freycinetia arborea, Wikipedia
I’ve never seen `ie `ie vines’ flowers! So beautiful =) Thank you so much for sharing
[...] views of Kaneohe Bay and the Koolaupoko Coast of windward Oahu — very different from the last time I was here when the summit was socked by clouds. We could see Kahouna fishpond along the shores of Kahaluu and Mokolii Island just offshore. [...]