Unusual cactus /succulents found - in Hawai’i!

Hawai’i includes all the biomes found on Earth! I learned this fact when I was working on my Masters in Middle Level Education. I was required to take an upper level course in my teaching area of science. I took a great class about Hawai’i’s ecology at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa. That was more than fifteen years ago and now I see some sources which include a polar ice cap biome.!

For my non-fully technical scientific purposes, let us accept all the biomes being found in Hawai’i. In any case, there is definitely a desert biome. For that reason, cactus can survive here. [As an aside, I would be interested as to how cactus originally arrived here. Was it related to the cattle industry or was it just for ornamentals?] 

However it happened, I have collected some unusual photos of the succulents found in Hawai’i, focusing primarily on a very commonly seen cactus, Opuntia sp. The interesting thing is that these Opuntia sp. plants were found in many varied parts of Hawai’i, so this species of cactus must adapt well. As you view the many Opuntia sp. notice how the flowers different thus they are different species.

Opuntia sp. in bloom / Makapu’u Lighthouse hike / August 2015 

Opuntia sp. in bloom / Makapu’u Lighthouse hike / March 2016

Opuntia sp. plant / Makapu’u Lighthouse hike / August 2015

During my undergraduate work in college, I took an environmental horticulture class. The class included a “lab” where we walked around the campus and had to memorize and be able to identify many species of plants. I learned then that some plants have so many different species in a genus, with the different species of plants indistinguishable for the class’s purposes, the scientific “name” to memorize was just the genus name, e.g  Opuntia sp. Two other such genera which I remember with that distinction were Pinus sp. (pine trees) and Casuarina sp. (which is the Ironwood  found in Hawai’i). 

Opuntia sp. in bloom / North Shore bike path / May 2016

Opuntia sp. plant / North Shore bike path / May 2016

So the Opuntia cactus I identify here, will remain identified only at the genera level. Doing a little research gives some information about this genus and explains why we learned the scientific name that way! Opuntia is the “most widespread” genus for cactus.

I took photos of this North Shore plant because this cactus plant is re-growing out of a white, virtually dead, “branch” of the plant! 

Opuntia sp. in bloom / Aiea Heights neighborhood / April 2016 

This incredible specimen of Opuntia sp., as one views the flower, is obviously a different species. It is so amazing how the plant is overloaded, and weighed down, by so many buds, that nearly a month later still the multitude of buds still remain and the flowers appear only little by little. I guess as Opuntia sp. is able to survive in different environments within Hawai’i, and in very dry environments, it grows, and goes through its life cycle, at a very slow pace!

Opuntia sp. plant /Aiea Heights neighborhood / April 2016

This flower sprouted from a small succulent growing on the surface of a stone wall. It is amazing how that large bloom can grow and be supported so high above the original plant!

Unknown succulent bloom / Aiea Heights neighborhood / March 2016

Unknown succulent plant & bloom /Aiea Heights neighborhood / March 2016

I did not take any photos of the famous Hawai’i succulent, the Night Blooming Cereus (mentioned in the movie Blue Hawaii) found on Punahou’s stone walls. Also, I could not find photos I took of another succulent flower I have seen on the Diamond Head and Makapu’u Lighthouse hikes. The flower is a large flat, singular bloom and found directly on the ground. I believe this is the species and it is not the corpse plant which causes quite a stir in Hawai’i!

Look out for these cactus / succulent blooms in Hawai’i, or other unusual ones where ever you live, when you “watch out for nature!”