8/16/09 - North of Saddle Road, 19 Mile Area (1 Viewer)

I returned to the same area North of Saddle Road, across from Kaumana Trail. I wasn't particularly early so I just started to explore upslope West of the hunting trails. I got to about 400 meters southwest of the main trail. The pig disturbance was variable depending on the terrain, and the understory wasn't as intact as the trail area. I found scattered 'anini trees and a couple 'ohe mauka trees. More amauropelta ferns. A large population of cyrtandra lysiosepala. Some huge 'oha wai trees that were actually worthy of the term "tree". The flora was not very diverse, so combined with the widespread and occasionally heavy pig rooting I don't have a great deal of hope for finding rare plants up here. I get the sense that this forest was never as rich as the second kipuka or some of the forests South of Saddle Road. I may take one more pass through the area just to the North to be complete. Any higher than I got would be easier accessed from the Northwest section of Kaumana Trail. Since it didn't seem promising I will probably direct my exploration of this area East (downslope) next time.