I had to endure the agony of cleaning my room last night for the landlord to make a house inspection today. Ugh. With a late start I was unable to do an ambitious outing, despite calm expedition-quality weather. I decided to do the easiest outing possible and check some of my favorite patches of rare native plants off of Road R on Stainback Highway, and try to explore a bit more beyond that. February will be consumed by bird surveys, so this may be my last visit to Road R for a while.
This area is at too low elevation, only about 3000 feet, for many native birds, and there's too much native flora for most alien junk birds. 8 minute counts were consistently 3-5 'apapane, 2-3 Japanese white-eye, 1-2 'oma'o and 0-1 'elepaio. The only other species heard/seen all day was a lone northern cardinal. It was a little on the quiet side, but that's fairly typical for this area. There are still a very small number of hardy mosquitoes around. I got buzzed maybe 5 times today.
The upper level tall canopy forest along Road R is one of the better native wet forests I know of, and has an unusually good diversity of native plant species. I was happy to see that all of the rare native plants I checked were doing well, despite recent pig diggings in the area.
The kilioe is looking quite healthy and has grown a bit larger, but unfortunately the flowers I was hoping for have not appeared yet.
The stenogyne scrophularoidies (mohihi) was still scrawny, but I found a second scrawny plant nearby. These plants always look beaten up, IME. They only had juvenile leaves so they have a ways to go. Although both plants were climbing larger plants pig diggings where they're growing threaten their roots and may be limiting their vigor.
The big phyllostegia floribunda patch was still intact, with a couple dozen short leafy stalks in a tight cluster. (I'm not sure how many actual individual plants make up the patch) Last year's profusely flowering plant on the trail has died back a lot, but the newer growth looked good. I found a few other individuals of this rare mint bush here and there, as usual.
The phyllostegia vestita on the edge of Road R took a beating over the summer, but is finally looking healthy again. It might manage to complete flowering and produce nutlets if it doesn't hang out so far over the road this time.
Just before dark I quickly went on the hunter's trail that goes to the West and confirmed that the first 'aku was doing well.
I paid particular attention to ferns and to cyrtandra (ha'iwale/'ilihia) today. I need to work on my fern IDs so I can soon recognize rare ferns if I see any. I'm starting with easy and richly variable species like adenophorus and asplenium. With cyrtandra I'm still struggling with a few species identifications because they form so many hybrids and there is a healthy mix of about 5 different species and their hybrids in this area. I came into one thick healthy area of the foreset that has been free of pigs for so long that the cyrtandra paludosa actually form a thick weedy mat! It was a wonderful sight!
I did my daily duty by pulling a lot of weeds along the way, but I fear that strawberry guava is a lost cause in this area. I pulled or hacked apart several lilikoi vines. I found a single baby angiopteris evecta fern (alien mule's foot fern) that was small enough to pull.
This area is at too low elevation, only about 3000 feet, for many native birds, and there's too much native flora for most alien junk birds. 8 minute counts were consistently 3-5 'apapane, 2-3 Japanese white-eye, 1-2 'oma'o and 0-1 'elepaio. The only other species heard/seen all day was a lone northern cardinal. It was a little on the quiet side, but that's fairly typical for this area. There are still a very small number of hardy mosquitoes around. I got buzzed maybe 5 times today.
The upper level tall canopy forest along Road R is one of the better native wet forests I know of, and has an unusually good diversity of native plant species. I was happy to see that all of the rare native plants I checked were doing well, despite recent pig diggings in the area.
The kilioe is looking quite healthy and has grown a bit larger, but unfortunately the flowers I was hoping for have not appeared yet.
The stenogyne scrophularoidies (mohihi) was still scrawny, but I found a second scrawny plant nearby. These plants always look beaten up, IME. They only had juvenile leaves so they have a ways to go. Although both plants were climbing larger plants pig diggings where they're growing threaten their roots and may be limiting their vigor.
The big phyllostegia floribunda patch was still intact, with a couple dozen short leafy stalks in a tight cluster. (I'm not sure how many actual individual plants make up the patch) Last year's profusely flowering plant on the trail has died back a lot, but the newer growth looked good. I found a few other individuals of this rare mint bush here and there, as usual.
The phyllostegia vestita on the edge of Road R took a beating over the summer, but is finally looking healthy again. It might manage to complete flowering and produce nutlets if it doesn't hang out so far over the road this time.
Just before dark I quickly went on the hunter's trail that goes to the West and confirmed that the first 'aku was doing well.
I paid particular attention to ferns and to cyrtandra (ha'iwale/'ilihia) today. I need to work on my fern IDs so I can soon recognize rare ferns if I see any. I'm starting with easy and richly variable species like adenophorus and asplenium. With cyrtandra I'm still struggling with a few species identifications because they form so many hybrids and there is a healthy mix of about 5 different species and their hybrids in this area. I came into one thick healthy area of the foreset that has been free of pigs for so long that the cyrtandra paludosa actually form a thick weedy mat! It was a wonderful sight!
I did my daily duty by pulling a lot of weeds along the way, but I fear that strawberry guava is a lost cause in this area. I pulled or hacked apart several lilikoi vines. I found a single baby angiopteris evecta fern (alien mule's foot fern) that was small enough to pull.
