Even though they are outside the park, some plant communities on the outer slopes of the mountain should be mentioned, because they are related to park forms and carry a compelling interest. The trail from Olinda to Waikamoi is through a transition forest between the wet and the dry that once drew botanists from many parts of the globe. It is now overgrown with foreign weeds, so that native shrubs survive only here and there. The mountain forests above Olinda have all been destroyed and are replaced by plants from faraway lands.
Although it now lies devastated by change, one of the richest botanical regions in Hawaii comprises the forbidding lava fields of Auwahi on the southwest slope of Haleakala. Fifty species of native trees once thrived in its fabulous mixed forests. The only known specimen of Maui hibiscadelphus, H. wilderianus, a relative of the hibiscus, was found here. It had a curved corolla that opened only slightly at the top. Its congener, H. giffardianus, once equally rare, still survives in Kipuka Puaulu at Kilauea, where a few vigorous plants, started by air-layering, receive tender care from the National Park. The last known Maui specimen of MAHOE, Alectryon macrococcus, grows in an Auwahi gulch. This tree has large double fruits (mahoe means twins) that split open to expose a shiny, chestnut-brown seed clasped in a brilliant scarlet aril. The ALANI, Pelea multiflora, of the lava fields is festooned with a lichen, Usnea australis, that appears to prefer it to all other trees. Haleakala sandalwood, Santalum haleakalae, with attractive red flowers grows to be a tree 25 feet tall. Other famous native trees include ’OHE’OHE, Tetraplasandra kauaiensis; ’OHE, Tetraplasandra meiandra; A’E, Fagara sp.; ’ALA’A, Planchonella auahiensis, with golden fruits; HO’AWA, Pittosporum terminalioides; OLOPUA, Nestegis sandwicensis; A’IA’I, Pseudomorus sandwicensis; MEHANE, Antidesma pulvinatum; and KAUILA, Alphitonia ponderosa, whose hard and durable timber was used in sacred structures.
Many unusual plants occur in the steep valleys to the north and east outside the park. Since the dense jungles in which they grow are inaccessible except to hardiest botanists, they are seldom seen. Here grow ’APE’APE, Gunnera petaloidea, a plant with geranium-like leaves three or more feet in diameter; a delicate, rare, native begonia, Hillebrandia sandwicensis; several exquisitely flowering lobelias. The summit bogs on Kukui and Mt. Eke in West Maui have a curious, distinctive flora that includes three species with origins ascribed to the Antarctic: Orebolus furcatus, a sedge; Acaena exigua of the Rose Family; and Lagenophora mauiensis, a composite.
BISHOP MUSEUM, J. F. ROCK COLLECTION
Tetromalopium.
BISHOP MUSEUM, J. F. ROCK COLLECTION
Begonia.
The Haleakala road is the easiest way to reach elevations above 7,000 feet in Hawaii. The lower mountain slopes up which it winds were once clothed with fern jungles that yielded with altitude to dry forest. All is now altered. Extensive grasslands and eucalyptus groves today leave the lasting impression on the visitor. Even on the heights, cattle, goats, introduced plants, insects, and other agents have wrought permanent change. Rare and interesting forms of native life have been exterminated or are well on the way to extinction. The National Park is trying hard to save what is left of the native cover within its boundaries and to restore the former scene wherever it is possible to do so.
BISHOP MUSEUM, J. F. ROCK COLLECTION
’Ape’ape.