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.

Planting Ironwood Trees

Graceful Ironwood Tree at MacKenzie Park on the Big Island

Today we planted three Ironwood trees.  During the last six months, we have been slowly and sadly replacing our dead Ohia trees and still have about eight other varieties to plant.

(If you don't know about this ecological tragedy, you can read about it at this link:  Dying Ohia Trees.    Or, Possible cause:  Beetle Spreading Fungus?

This week we narrowed down the right places for our three Ironwood trees that each came from different places on our Big Island.

The first one we found uprooted down at MacKenzie Park in an area known as Opihikao.  It is one of our favorite places along the famous “Red Road” here in Puna. During Hurricane Iselle in 2014, the park was hit hard by Hurricane Iselle that swept ashore pulling trees right out of the ground.

The Park is name for ranger Albert MacKenzie who planted many of the ironwood trees that cover the 13 acre park.  The "Casuarina" trees were brought to many islands as seeds, floating on logs or pumice.   The park has a fascinating history including prison convicts, King Kamehameha's Highway, and ghost stories.  (CLICK on this for great stories! MacKenzie Park )

The park is 20 minutes from our house along "Red Road"

"Take me home with you."

We purchased the second Ironwood tree months ago as one replacement for some of our dying Ohia trees. And, just this last week we found a third one in a very unexpected place.

We were running an errand, with our Tundra truck, to pick up a load of volcanic red cinder that's being quarried right from a volcanic cinder cone a few miles from our house.  This tiny tree (with three small trunks) was pushing its way up through a pile of red cinder the size of a house and it looked like it needed a new home.