Snapshot: Banza

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Sebastian Marquez

At our Manoa Cliff restoration site, there is still some diversity with the native arthropods. While my entomology skills are lacking, we were lucky to have guests today more familiar with our Hawaiian insects. Here is one of the native Katydids (Bonza Banza sp.) found at the site. Pictured above is a female with her large ovipositor. Pictured below is a male:

These guys were more relaxed and methodical in their movements than say other non-native grasshoppers. I doubt I would have been able to take decent shots otherwise. Even our insects have a laid-backed lifestyle!

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Feral birds at the Honolulu Zoo

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Sebastian Marquez

Watching the bird life at the Honolulu Zoo is an interesting thing. Certainly the zoo’s collection of birds is quite impressive. But from an urban birder’s perspective, the zoo is interesting in another way. Simply put, the zoo’s feral bird guild has all the common stalwarts plus a few neat guys which are harder to see elsewhere in Honolulu.

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Snapshot: Myrsine inflorescence

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Sebastian Marquez

Here are the neat inflorescence of one of the Kolea (Myrsine spp.) native to O’ahu. This individual is on the summit of Konahuanui. The flowers are in fascicles arising from knobby structures on the stem; in large numbers like this the effect is pretty cool.

Many of the big-leafed Kolea have been lumped into Myrsine lessertiana but more works needs to be done. As with many things in nature, perhaps its not as clear cut as it seems.

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Top posts of 2011

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Sebastian Marquez

So wordpress.com gave me some really cool end of year stats for Studia Mirabilium. Quite the pleasant surprise to find in my inbox actually. From those metrics, I thought I would compile some of the top posts from the past year.

5) Loulu of La’ie – Hiking the northern Ko’olaus with the Pritchardia group

4) Birdwatching at ‘Iolani Palace – Checking out a surprising place to find native birds

3) The treasures of Hidden Valley – Volunteering with O’ahu PEP on the Windward side

2) Ko’olau Pride – Seeing rare plants in the wilds above Hawaii Kai

1) The hills have eyes… and really weird flowers – Checking the flora of the Wai’anaes

Also, the report showed that I had visitors from Mauritius, Tanzania and New Zealand… all places on my wish list to visit! I’d hope to see you in your neck of the woods soon. And to everybody that stopped by Studia Mirabilium in the past year… Thank You for indulging my quirky, quirky interests!

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Getting to know your Hawaiian Lobeliads #19: Clermontia persicifolia

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Sebastian Marquez

Clermontia persicifolia

  • Hawaiian Name: Oha wai
  • Conservation Status: Apparently Secure
  • Distribution: O’ahu
  • Date photographed: 12/31/2011
  • Ease of viewing: Medium
  • *Identification: Form– Terrestrial or epiphytic shrubs 2-6 m tall. Leaves– elliptic to oblanceolate; 7-16 cm long, 1.5-4 cm wide; petioles 2-7 cm long. Flower– hypanthium hemispherical, obconical, or oblong, 7-12 mm long, 6-8 mm wide; perianth greenish-white to white, 48-60 mm long, 5-8 mm wide, tube suberect to gently curved.
  • Phylogenetic comments: Of the different Clermontia spp. found on O’ahu, C. persicifolia is the only one restricted to the island.
  • My notes: There are several individuals along the Ka’au crater rim trail; they’re easy to see from the trail itself. Compared to the other Clermontia here, C. persicifolia has shinier, stiffer leaves. It’s not often that I’m still up on the mountains during the late afternoon. I spent some time photographing these while taking advantage of the light.
  • Links: Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, UH Botany, Native Hawaiian Plants- Clermontia
  • Additional Photos:

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i

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The Wonders of Rediscovery

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

I thought Christmas was over. I had just finished a post about the wonderful gift of being able to see rare Achatinella snails in the Ko’olaus. I’ll have to happily revise my Christmas gift. On a whim, Mashuri and I did a Christmas Eve hike into the back of Palolo Valley. We didn’t realize we would end up coming across a plant that had not been seen on the Ko’olau Volcano in over 20 years…

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Getting to know your Hawaiian Lobeliads #18: Cyanea humboldtiana

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

Cyanea humboldtiana

  • Hawaiian Name: Haha
  • Conservation Status: Endangered
  • Distribution: O’ahu (Ko’olau range)
  • Date photographed: December 10, 2011
  • *Identification: Form– Stems woody, 1-2m long. Leaves– obovate to broadly elliptic; blades 18-45 cm long, 7-16 cm wide; upper surface glabrous, lower surface pubescent; petioles 3-4 cm long. Flower– hypanthium oblong to obconical, 8-12 mm long; calyx lobes oblong, 4-10 mm long; corolla dark magenta or rarely white, 6-7.5 cm long.
  • My notes: It seems strange that the manual describes the flowers being rarely white, yet every picture of C. humboldtiana I’ve found online shows white corollas.
  • Links: Smithsonian- Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, US Fish & Wildlife Cyanea humboldtiana 5-year review (pdf)

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i

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Snapshot: Christmas at the Zoo

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

Every year, I try to make it to the “Christmas at the Zoo” event here at the Honolulu Zoo. It always makes for interesting shots like this one. As discombobulating as seeing a Chimp drinking heartily from a Gatorade bottle is, their technique for opening it is even more interesting. The Chimps just twist it open with their teeth. What a set of jaw musculature! If this Chimpanzee gazed upon Yorick’s skull, there’ll be no lamenting to Horatio about a life lost and realizations about death; he’d merely snort at the lack of a sagittal crest. Puny Humans!

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Snapshot: Papala kepau

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

Time for another comparison. The larger leaf on the left is the common species of Papala kepau (Pisona umbellifera) in the Ko’olaus. The one on the right is the rarer Pisona sandwicensis. As you can see, the leaf bases are much different. P. sandwicensis has a much more truncate leaf base and a better defined petiole, whereas P. umbellifera has a cuneate base and less of a petiole. Naturally, there are other differences as well. But I hope this helps in the field.

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Getting to know your Hawaiian Lobeliads #17: Cyanea pohaku

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

Cyanea pohaku

  • Conservation Status: Extinct
  • Distribution: East Maui (Pu’unianiau)
  • Date photographed: October 11, 1910? (J.F. Rock)
  • *Identification: Form– Sparingly branched trees 6-7 m tall. Leaves– oblanceolate; blades 16-30 cm long by 1.5-4 cm wide; margins callose-crenulate; winged petioles 0.8-2 cm long. Flower– hypanthium obconical, 12-17 mm long; calyx lobes narrowly triangular, 4-7 mm long, 1-2 mm wide; corolla greenish-white, 30-45 mm long, 5-7 mm wide
  • Phylogenetic comments: Originally described by Rock as Clermontia haleakalensis,  it was later moved (Lammers, 1988) to Cyanea bearing the new name Cyanea pohaku.
  • My notes: How lucky are we that the great Joseph Rock was also an excellent photographer? One of the absolute strangest of the Hawaiian Lobeliads could have been lost forever in time without a trace; Rock was the only scientist to ever describe this species before its entire habitat was lost. Take a close look at the picture, C. pohaku has a fairly stout trunk, in the lower left of the photo is a hat to give some scale. It looks to be a 1-2 ft. girth at the base. Weird. C. pohaku was also known from one of the highest elevation ranges for Hawaiian Lobeliads at around 7,000 ft. Such a shame that it’s gone. At least we have a small set of photos so we know exactly what this long gone lobeliad looked like.
  • Links: A Monographic study of the Hawaiian species of the tribe Lobelioideae family Campanulaceae, The Indigenous Trees of the Hawaiian Islands
  • Additional Photos:

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i

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