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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 1h

ʻŌhiʻa Kū (Hymenophyllum recurvum ) and Paʻi (Adenophorus hymenophylloides), endemic. Kahauale‘a Natural Area Reserve, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

Two delicate ferns gracefully hang from a mossy tree trunk, one a filmy and forked, the other like miniature garlands.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 1d

Spanish Needle (Bidens pilosa), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A plant with opposite leaves with three dentate leaflets and hairy, red, slightly-winged petioles.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 2d

Lanceleaf Rattlebox (Crotalaria lanceolata), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A spike of yellow flowers shoots out from a plant with a relatively small number of leaves, each with three narrow leaflets.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 3d

Common Liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha), introduced, with gemmae-filled gemma cups releasing tiny clone plants in a droplet of water to grow into new clone plants. Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A close up of a plant showing cup-like structures filled with tiny, lentil-shaped green gemma, some of which are floating away in a drop of water.

Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 4d

Stealthy Ground Spiders (Family Gnaphosidae), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A small dark, glossy spider nearly blends into the pebbles, dirt, and plant debris on the ground.

Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 5d

Purple? Passionfruit (Passiflora edulis), introduced (cultivated). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi. Photo by Brian Frederick.

A spherical fruit with a stem, and purple-blushed green rind with pale green speckles held in two hands like an offering.

Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 5d

Goose Grass (Eleusine indica), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A grass seed head with five 2 fingerlike spikes radiating from the stem.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 7d

Blue-banded Lema Leaf Beetle eggs (Lema solani), recently introduced, on Pōpolo—American Black Nightshade (Solanum americanum), indigenous. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

Closely packed rows of oblong yellow insect eggs with black end dots on the underside of a leaf.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 8d

Common Coral Slime mold (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa) and Cribraria sp. (Can you spot the three tiny dots on thin stalks?). Waikahekaheiki. Puna, Hawaiʻi.

Tiny dots on stalks among translucent white forked slime mold fruiting bodies on clear slime-covered decaying wood.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 9d

Puapua Moa—Ribbon Fern (Ophioderma pendulum), indigenous. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A plant growing from a moss-covered tree. It has a medium green ribbon-like frond from which dangles a twisted and segmented yellow fertile frond.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 10d

Uluhe (Dicranopteris linearis), indigenous. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A fern fiddlehead emerging from a rhizome. It is pale purple and covered in orange hairs.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 11d

Cane Tibouchina (Chaetogastra herbacea), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.
#Bloomscrolling

A flower with four dark pink petals, numerous yellow stamens, and a pale pink pistil.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 12d

Mai‘a—Banana (Musa sp.), introduced (cultivated). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai‘i.

A juvenile banana plant with a smaller offshoot.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 13d

Gotu Cola (Centella asiatica), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A low-growing plant with small, green, fan-shaped leaves.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 14d

Endemic ʻŌhiʻa Lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) and introduced Rhododendron sp., Red Button Ginger (Costus woodsonii), and Bamboo Orchid (Arundina graminifolia). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A scene crowded with a flowering tree with red puff flowers, a bush with yellow trumpet flowers, a plant with a waxy red spindle-like flower, and a single white and pink orchid.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 15d

Nalo Meli—Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera), introduced. Pāhoa, Hawaiʻi.

A manager from a nearby store intended on poisoning them, but a bystander called a beekeeper friend to come to the rescue. I do hope these were collected rather than destroyed.

Hundreds of bees gathered in a mass in a small tree.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 16d

Pua Hilahila—Sleeping Grass (Mimosa pudica), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A pink, round flower head on a prickly stalk, with small sepals, four prominent petals, long protruding stamens. The flowerhead hangs down under a bright green sedge plant.

Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 17d

A Cinnabar shelf fungus (Trametes sp.). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

Seen from above, a bumpy orange shelf mushroom with a yellow stripe grows from a log.

Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 18d

Acroporium fuscoflavum, endemic. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A luxurious moss with pointed yellow-green leaves arising from red-brown stems.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 19d

Garden Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) and Hare’s Foot Inkcap (Coprinopsis lagopus), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A low-growing plant with 3-lobed leaves and a sunny flower with white petals and yellow center. Next to it is a delicate mushroom with a translucent cap that curls up and back onto itself.

Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 20d

Moss and lichen (Pyrrhobryum spiniforme and Cladonia sp.). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai’i.

Pale green columns of lichen peek through a luxurious carpet of fuzzy moss in orange, yellow and green.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 21d

An immature domesticated Air Potato (Dioscorea bulbifera ‘Hawaii’), introduced (cultivated). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiiʻi.

A vine with a heart-shaped leaf and a bumpy, round bulbil growing on a wire fence.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 22d

Lesser Grass Blue Butterfly (Zizina otis), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A small brown butterfly with darker brown spots faces the camera with folded wings.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 23d

This Meadow Spittlebug (Philaenus spumarius), introduced, is NOT AMUSED. Alsi, Waldport, Oregon.

A leafhopper insect glowers at the camera from its perch on top of the photographer’s glasses.

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Tara Severns @taraseverns.bsky.social · 24d

Rusty Millipede (Trigoniulus corallinus), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaii.

Curled up in a hand is a rust-colored, many-segmented, round-bodied arthropod with two pairs of legs on each segment.