Hello Dance!

My Own Personal Avatar World

31 Dec 2009 2 Comments

by hellodance in Places I Go Tags: asshole, ferns, flowers, forest, hawaii, koa, lehua, maps, mystery plant, nature, trees, wild pigs

Because I’m bad at paying attention to details, I don’t remember the name of the world or what the blue people are called in Avatar. I think the 3D technology burned my eyes all the way back into my brain when I went to see the movie. My point is: the rainforests here are very similar to the world in the movie. But first:

I got a haircut!

In the afternoon, my mom wanted to take me to the forest where her students plant koa trees. It is a completely different universe.

Honuaula Forest Reserve from the Sky

Asshole Ginger

We learn from a very young age that the rainforest ecosystems here in the islands are rare and delicate. I remember my 4th grade teacher being passionate about Hawaiian plants and animals. I love coming to visit because you can really see how non-native species of plants and animals negatively affect this fragile environment. Here are some examples of Asshole Flowers.

Asshole Orchid/Lily?

Look at this ginger on the left. If you come across this guy in the rainforest, punch it right in it’s flowery face. There are other kinds of ginger, particularly the red ginger or Awapuhi, which are the good gingers. Not this one though. This one sucks.The thing with non-native plants is: they spread their seed around and push out the plants who were there first with their numbers.

Asshole Red Flower

OK, so I know the flower to your right looks like an orchid, but I have a feeling it’s a lily of some sort because it’s leaves aren’t thick and waxy. If you can tell me what kind of flower this is, I will personally write you a check for $5 and put it in the mail for you. Regardless of what kind of plant it is, it’s definitely not native, and therefore, it goes into the asshole category.

These Asshole Red Flowers got me really good. I thought I’d show them what’s what by picking a whole bunch of them, but they left their sticky seeds all over my jeans. So I guess they’re the ones that got the last laugh.

Koa Trees

The koa tree that my mom is standing next to in the picture above is one of Hawaii’s most lovely resources, known for the strength of its wood. This tree is about 20 years old, but the ancient Hawaiians used to build conoes out of the very old trees, which, as you can imagine, would have been huge. Not only are they battling the asshole plant life that is threatening to push them out, they’re facing an even worse threat: Asshole Wild Pigs. They not only dig up the roots, they knock the young trees over, which we saw ourselves. They’re such pests that hunters come and shoot them for sport here. I hope the big guy was turned into a delicious set of Baby Back Ribs.

Lehua

This is the very precious Lehua flower. Native birds that have evolved over centuries so that they would be able to feed on the nectar of only this flower can be heard overhead. It smells strongly of earth and rain here. My mom and I sat very quiet for a few minutes and we could hear the buzzing of the insects, the singing of the birds and the wind through the leaves of the ferns. Places like this should be protected and maintained so that I can take my kids here one day and they can smell and see the same beautiful things. You can check out the flicker set of my forest adventure by clicking on this link.

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