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Ohia in the Dry Forests of Puu Waawaa
Posted: November 2, 2007
Puu Waawaa is a large cinder cone on the flanks of Hualalai in Kona that has some of the last remaining native dry forests in Hawaii. Pockets of lama, ohia, kolea, kauila, and iliahi trees dot the landscape along side introduced silk oak trees, jacaranda trees, and pasture grasses.
Puu Waawaa is in the rain shadow of the Kohala Mountains and Mauna Kea, and receives less than 40 inches of rain a year. Introduced grasses and lantana cover much of the parched landscape with native trees–kauila, kolea, and ohia–overhead.
Game birds are plentiful at Puu Waawaa. A plump francolin rests in the branches of an ohia tree surrounded by silk oak trees blooming with yellow flowers. Ohia trees (Metrosideros polymorpha) are slow growing trees under the best of conditions. In dry forests where water is scarce they grow even slower. This 18 inch thick ohia tree is likely to be over 200 years old.
Red lehua flowers burst into bloom near the summit of Puu Waawaa. Ohia trees at Puu Waawaa grow mostly tall and straight–this big tree has a trunk 2-feet thick and is likely to be over 300 years old.
Here is a close-up of the same big old ohia tree zooming in on its red flowers and its remarkably gnarled and twisted branches.