Robotics!

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez
A picture of the 2008 FIRST Robotics Competiti...

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This will be the only kind of advertising you’ll see from me on this blog. I don’t (and prefer not to) talk about my previous incarnation as an IT professional, but I have to talk about the awesome FIRST Robotics Competition.

Take high school students, engineering mentors, and lots o’ machinery and you have the foundation for the robotics tournament. Sure the rules of the games can be highly contrived, but the engineering to compete is anything but.

What kind of force does a launcher need to kick a ball through a goal? What’s the best way to pick up rubber tubes? How can a robot grip a pole more efficiently to climb it faster? The math behind these problems is elegant enough, but then to go from paper and theory to actually having some applied answer? Results that you can test and reconfigured? Perhaps I’m projecting a bit of my frustrations in the lack of easily quantifiable results for the conservation work I’m doing. But still, these kids are doing marvelous things.

Playoffs are on Saturday, March 26. I’ll be there rooting for Team ‘Iolani! The atmosphere is competitive, goofy, nerdy… and wonderful.

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Glam shots of the Manoa Cliff Natives

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

We have been working hard at restoring the native forest at our site along the Manoa Cliff trail. While there has been great strides since the project started in 2005, the trail itself outside our area still has some great native plants.

The flora on Pu’u Ohi’a has been described in the past; by Dr. Raymond Fosberg and again by Beth Saxon. I am nowhere near their level, but the plants still are. Sure, the trail is highly degraded, but here is another chance for the plants to shine.

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A brief look at Hawaiian Rutaceae

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

Major components of varied Hawaiian plant communities are the native members of the citrus family (Rutaceae). No tasty oranges here though. But the good thing, at least on O’ahu, is that they are an almost guaranteed sighting on most summit hikes. There are 3 main branches native to Hawai’i: Zanthoxylum, Melicope, and Platydesma.

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Getting to know your Hawaiian Lobeliads #11: Delissea waianaeensis

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

Delissea waianaeensis

  • Conservation Status: Endangered
  • Distribution: O’ahu (Wai’anae range)
  • Date photographed: 2/26/2011
  • Ease of viewing: Difficult
  • *Identification: Form– Branched or unbranched shrubs 1-3 m tall. Leaves– ovate to ovate-lanceolate; blades 12-30 cm long by 6-17 cm wide; margins crenate, denticulate, serrate, or doubly serrate; petioles 6-18 cm long. Flower– hypanthium ovoid to cylindrical; calyx lobes subulate, 0.5-1 mm long; corolla white or greenish white, curved, 45-60 mm long with 1 dorsal knob
  • Phylogenetic comments: While more similar to Cyanea morphologically, studies have shown that Delissea actually seem more closely related to the succulent Brighamia species. D. waianaeensis was recently split from D. subcordata
  • Links: Delissea subcordata SGCN (pdf), Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, UH Botany, Native Hawaiian Plants- Delissea, US Fish and Wildlife Delissea subcordata 5-year review (pdf), Origin, adaptive radiation and diversification of the Hawaiian Lobeliads (Asterales: Campanulaceae) Givnish, Thomas J., et al.  Proc. R. Soc. B. 7 Feb. 2009 vol. 276 no. 1656 407-416
  • Additional Photos:

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i

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The hills have eyes… and really weird flowers

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

I like hiking Ko’olau range because I like the juxtaposition of rare native biota and dense urban environments. That whole sharing the planet thing again. However, I just can’t deny how amazing the native flora is in the Wai’anae range is. So here we go, another trek into the hills above Makua, and more wonderful surprises…

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Trailside plants of the Hawai’i Loa Ridge

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

While it’s an obvious play off John Hall’s excellent book, my ambitions are much humbler than his. Highlighting native plants on one trail is enough for me. On a whim, I decided to do a short 3-4 hr hike up to the Ko’olau summit via the Hawai’i Loa Ridge trail to check out the native plant life. It’s short relative to my typical all-day hikes anyway.

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Snapshot: Hulumoa on Ahakea lau nui

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

Here’s another species of Hulumoa (Korthalsella complanata). K. complanata is the most common of the Hawaiian mistletoes. It is also found on a wider variety of host plants than the other species. Here it is on Ahakea lau nui (Bobea elatior). This species is quite variable vegetatively, but on Bobea hosts, it looks strikingly similar to K. latissima on Mt. Ka’ala. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I can spot the differences; I know K. latissima branches more sparingly than K. complanata. Perhaps more time in the field will help…

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Getting to know your Hawaiian Lobeliads #10: Clermontia faurei

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

Clermontia faurei

  • Hawaiian Name: Haha’aiakamanu
  • Conservation Status: Apparently Secure
  • Distribution: Kaua’i, O’ahu (2 records in 1950 & 1956)
  • Date photographed: 9/22/2010
  • Ease of viewing: Easy
  • *Identification: Form– Terrestrial or epiphytic shrub or tree 2-7 m tall. Leaves– oblong to elliptic; blades 5-17 cm long by 1.5-7 cm wide; margins callose-crenulate; petioles 1.5-8 cm long. Flower– hypanthium hemispherical to obconical, 9-15 mm long; calyx lobes deltate to shallowly triangular, 2-4 mm long; corolla greenish or purplish externally, cream within, curved, 60-70 mm long.
  • Phylogenetic comments: This is the only species of Clermontia found on Kaua’i.
  • My notes: Even though this is the only type found on the island, it is a major component of the wet forest plant community. Clermontia faurei is one of the most common plants in the understory along sections of the Pihea trail. Where I saw C. faurei, it was difficult to tell where one sprawling shrub stopped and another began.
  • Links: Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, UH Botany, Native Hawaiian Plants- Clermontia
  • Additional Pics:

*From Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai’i

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Gulch-hopping in Mokule’ia

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

Approaching Cyaneas

We hiked several gulches in the Mokule’ia forest preserve to check out the native plants in the area. This part of the northern Wai’anaes has some nice native forest that are still fairly species rich. Let’s see how things have changed since the days Hathaway and Degener hiked these areas.

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Remnant of the Past or Vision of the Future?

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Sebastian Marquez

A majority of these botany hikes I go on have been with Joel and Kenji. It has been a real privilege because they are both walking encyclopedias of the biota here in Hawai’i. So much of what I have learned is because of these guys. This past weekend we went to check out an interesting patch of Ohia forest in the hills behind Pupukea.

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