Salmon Surprise!

Yesterday morning was overcast and raining, so while we were sitting out on the lanai being pleasantly distracted by Ms. Tasha puppy (now six weeks old,) we looked toward the north boundary of our property and thought we saw salmon-colored blossoms on a young ohia tree.  Going out for a closer look, we were right -- it is a young tree that did not bloom last year at all.

We have written previously about the plight of our ohia tress on the island -- the blight/fungus that is killing so many. (here is the LINK to that blog:  Dying Ohia Trees

Nearly all trees have red blossoms. While there are yellow blossomed trees they are infrequent, and we have two. The salmon are the most rare, so we feel really lucky.

The legend of the Ohia tree and the Lehua blossom.  The legend says that one day Pele met a handsome warrior named Ohia and she asked him to marry her. Ohia, however, had already pledged his love to Lehua.  Pele was furious when Ohia turned down her marriage proposal, so she turned Ohia into a twisted tree.  Lehua was heartbroken, of course. As the gods took pity on Lehua and decided it was an injustice to have Ohia and Lehua separated, they turned Lehua into the  flower on the Ohia tree so that the two lovers would be forever joined together.  Hawaiian folklore says that if you pluck this flower you are separating the lovers, and that day it will rain.