Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve

The Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve is a wet native forest on the Big Island of Hawaii. It was very near our rental house so was only a short outing. The route to the reserve is a narrow road that dead ends and then there is a short walk back along a fence to the reserve’s sign and a ladder stile to get yourself up and over the fence. Inside is a trail maintained by cutting the prolific vegetation – probably with a machete.

The trees in the forest are koa and ohi’a but they are hard to see because there are so many tree ferns. The fronds are very large on these plants and it is easy to imagine what the understory of tropical forests must have been like during the time of the dinosaurs (in fact, limited visibility in this forest because of plant density makes one hyper conscious of the rustling noises in the foliage and glad that there is a fence to keep the wild pigs out).

As usual – I honed in on the fiddleheads that were close to eye level. There were big hairy ones,

Small bristly ones,

And smooth purple spirals.

There was lots of moss around too and most of it seemed to include sporophytes.

Most of the time, the view upward was filled with large ferns…but there was always a hint of the higher layers of the forest.

I was only able to see the huge trunks of those larger trees.

On the way back to the car – outside the fence – I notice some camellias that must have been planted along the road. The texture and color of the dried fern fronts with the flower that had recently fallen caught my attention…a nice ending to the outing.

Previous Hawaii Posts:

• Getting to Hawaii
• Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Iki Trail
• Chain of Craters Road
• Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
• Lava Tree State Park
• Maunakea
• Akaka Falls State Park

November at the Brookside Gardens Conservatory – Part 2

The Brookside Gardens Conservatory offered a number of opportunities for thematic photography when we walked around its paths earlier this week. Yesterday I posted about the mums and the reds/oranges that I missed in those flowers but found in others. Today the themes are focused on light and curves. There was a leaf that seemed to glow in a spotlight. I’m not sure which magnification I like the best. The higher magnification almost looks like it is on fire!

The corner of the conservatory seemed crowded but there was one plant that found a way to shine in the jumble.

And what about this ‘light at the end of tunnel!

Shifting to curves….the variegated crotons were crowded together – I like the curves of their leaves and the veins too.

The cycads are all curves….from the fibrous centers to the stubby arms of the trunk.

The fiddleheads are nestled in center of this large fern…their wavy curves still tightly coiled.

The bromeliad is orderly curves…except for the green one in the foreground that seems to be going in a different direction!

Succulents are stuffed curves. This one has a little point at the end of each leaf (or is it a stem). Look at the orientation of those points toward the center of the plant. They could be a model for aliens conversing.

Papyrus – river rocks – ripples of water…lots of curves.

Longwood Gardens Fiddleheads – September 2015

When we were at Longwood Gardens last week – several of the ferns in the conservatory were in the fiddlehead stage. I always find the tightly packed spirals of the fronds fascinating. Some of them already have the beginnings of spore structures on the underside of the tiny parts of the frond that beginning to unpack itself as it uncurls. Often times the stem looks hairy too.

Sometimes the structure is one simple spiral and sometimes there are multiple spirals packed together. In the case of the one below – the main stem elongates to separate the spirals before they are completely open. The color of the ‘hair’ stands out with the bright green of the spirals.

On tree ferns (below), the fiddleheads start out without any green at all and then expand as they unfurl – revealing the green frond.

Next spring I’ll photography fiddleheads in our nearby woodlands….if I can get my timing right. They might not be as large as these from the conservatory at Longwood…but they are a joy to find and a sign of spring.

Dogwood, Fiddleheads, Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Does everyone have plants that they look for in the springtime forest? After I moved from Texas to Maryland many years ago - l noticed plants that were not common at all where I had lived in Texas…and now I look for them every spring. I hope the people that grew up in Maryland (and other areas where they are ‘native’) appreciate them as much as I do.

Dogwoods are popular as landscaping trees but I like them most in the understory of the forest. They start blooming before the taller trees create the deep shade of summer.  A few years ago a disease killed or damaged many of the dogwoods and it seemed like there were a few years that hardly any dogwoods bloomed. But there seem to be many in bloom this year. They are back!

I enjoy the new ferns returning every spring - and the fiddleheads that unfurl. In the beginning the fronds are so tightly coiled that they look solid rather than layers of tissue that will unwind. It is a wrapped gift of nature that those fiddleheads become fully formed ferns in just a few weeks.

Last but not least - Jack-in-the-Pulpits. Last year they seemed to be everywhere. They are not as numerous so far this year - maybe the weather caught some at the wrong time. They are odd looking flowers. I spotted these at Brookside Gardens last week.