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Native Flowers on Konahuanui

Posted: September 29, 2009

I hiked with some friends to the twin peaks of Konahuanui to look for the flowers of rare native plants that live on the highest peaks of the Koolau Mountains.

Starting from the top of Tantalus, our plan was to climb 1,500 feet to Konahuanui — the highest point on the Koolau Mountains at 3,150 feet elevation.

Justin Ohara and Thea Ferentinos lead the way under ficus trees that often start-off as small epiphytes on large trees and can completely engulf their hosts as they grow and mature into trees.

Pauoa Flats is one of my favorite places along the trail where the roots of trees snake and coil themselves over the landscape.

While making our way up Nuuanu Valley overlooking the resevoir, we glimpsed the very top of Lulumahu Falls which cascades over a hundred feet to the valley floor below.  We also saw Mokapu Peninsula and Kaneohe Bay on the other side of the island through a low point in the mountains.

The higher we climbed the better we could see Honolulu Harbor, the reef runway and other landmarks on the southern coast of Oahu.

When we finally reached the second peak of Konahuanui at 3,105 feet, known as K2, we turned east along the spine of the Koolau Mountains.  August Smith and Drew Erickson make their way through ohia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha), lapalapa (Cheirodendron platyphyllum), and hapuu ferns (Cibotium sp).

The summit of K2 was ablaze in color with an eye-catching display of pink-orange ieie flowers (Freycinetia arborea) nearly 8 inches across.   Ieie is indigenous to the Hawaii — the Hawaiians wove their long roots into fish traps and into the backing for capes and other feathered articles.

Based on reports that a rare lobelia blooms at Konahuanui at this time of year, we made our way along the spine of Koolau Mountains.  As we made our way along the edge, we looked down several thousand feet upon lush green Maunawili Valley and could see Diamond Head and Waikiki far in the distance on the southern coast of Oahu.

Many lehua papa (Metrosideros rugosa) shrubs along the edge were covered with moss.   The leaves of rugosa are distinctive — they are deeply furrowed, stiff to the touch, and hairy on the backside.  This species of ohia lehua is endemic only to the island of Oahu and thrives on the windswept slopes of the Koolau Mountains.

Multiple puu (hills) forced us to climb up and down on the spine of the Koolau Mountains along the very edge which drops well over a thousand feet down into Maunawili.

After making our way over multiple puu, we were ecstatic when we found we were looking for — Lobelia gaudichaudii spp. gaudichaudii — in bloom on the windward side of the summit ridge!  The plant itself was no more than 12 inches high but had a flower stalk that extended another 2 feet with vibrant red-pink-purple flowers.  Although this lobelia is not on the list of endangered species it is not common and can only be seen in the remotest parts of the island.

The flower stalk produces dozens of vibrant blooms which open up a few at a time starting from the bottom and working its way to the top over a period of several weeks.  We were extremely fortunate to catch the plant in the final week of its flowering.  This rare lobelia is endemic only to the island of Oahu and can only be found high in the Koolau Mountains.

This extremely rare plant is named after Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupre (1789–1854), a French botanist and pharmacologist, who was one of the first professional botanists to survey the plants of Hawaii on two voyages of scientific discovery on the Uranie from 1817-1820 and the La Bonite in 1836-1837.  He discovered and established the Hawaiian genus lobelia and was the first to collect and describe a number of endemic Hawaiian plants.

Having achieved our goal and the day drawing to an end, we turned around to make our way back down.  As we hiked along the edge one last time, we admired the magnificent views of windard Oahu and reflected on our great fortune at seeing such a dazzling array of native plants in bloom.   What a great place to explore!

SOURCES:

A monographic study of the Hawaiian species of the tribe Lobelioideae family, By Joseph Francis Charles Rock, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Ethnology and Natural History, 1919

Hawaiian Lobelioids, Wikipedia

Freycinetia arborea, Wikipedia

Native Hawaiian Plants, Department of Botany, University of Hawaii

One Response to “Native Flowers on Konahuanui”

1. Hawaii flowers, rainforest plants, and hidden Hawaii through fine art nature photography says:

   October 6, 2009 at 6:37 am

   [...] time admiring and photographing the flowers. While this lobelia is the same species as the one on Konahuanui it is a different subspecies — [...]