Pear Gulch Ramble

Saturday October 4th 2014

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Today we took Nathan and Jay to see some of the native plants in Pear Gulch.  This is the story as I can remember 2 months later in December as I write.

This is just the common "African Snail" .  It's a NASTY invasive snail and good for nothing.  This link will give you reasons to kill everyone you see.

Before heading into the native forest we always take a break at "Lookout Point".   Strange thing happened today.  As I was climbing up the rocks to get to the lookout I spotted a plant I wanted to photo.  Bingo, NO CAMERA AROUND MY NECK.  ??????   Then I remembered abut a 1/2 hour ago when putting on my spikes I placed it along side me on the ground.  Must have left it there.   Lucky Jane and Alan were about a 1/2 hour behind us.  I called Jane and she was just at the spot where I left the camera and LUCKY FOR ME no one came along before here to walk off with it.  MAHALO JANE FOR SAVING ME FROM A $400 LOSS.

From the lookout I could see many Wiliwili trees standing high above the scrub forest of invasive.  Later in the day we would visit "Big Wili" who still had a few flowers.

One of the first natives we ran into in Pear Gulch was/is `Ilie`e a vine in the Plumbago family.  The second photo is a close up.

 Sorry but I don't remember which native plant I found this little snail on.

This is a young Hao, Rauvolfia sandwicensis.

Jay spotted this little snail. 

Interesting little plant/fern growing on a rock in a dry stream.

As  we climbed out of one of the many small gulches along the loop Jay spotted this huge moth just waiting to have pictures taken.

And here is Big Wili. Well flowers anyway.  Wiliwili is in the legume or pea family of plants, Latin name -> Erythrina sandwicensis.  Last year this tree was in FULL BLOOM.  Not so lucky this year, just a scattering of flowers.  This is a big tree growing on the side of a gulch.  The top of the tree sticks up higher than the ridge.  I needed the telephoto lens to get these pictures.

That's it folks.  Hope you enjoyed the post.