Meet Dr. Alexei Oskolski. A senior researcher at the Komarov Botanical Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia.
He was in Hawai'i this past week to study plants in the Ginseng Family, Arailiaceae. I helped him find those plants.
Here he is in the Kilauea Forest.
very cool!
This is a silhouette of Tetraplasandra oahuensis; one of the main species of Alexei's study.
Here is a seedling of Tetraplasandra kavaiensis. It is very rare, and may soon become Listed Endangered.
Of course Alexei was fascinated with the unusual plants of Hawai'i's Rainforests. He took several photos of this Mamaki bush Pipturus albidus, in full bloom! It is a member of the Nettles Family, Urticaceae.
I quickly figured out, what makes Russian folks happy. Show them Hawaiian plants!
This was a hit! Clermontia lindseyana, a Listed Endangered member of the Lobelia Family, Campanulaceae. The Kilauea Forest is one of the few places that the plant still exists.
We also went to Volcanoes National Park to see plants.
This is a rare sedge found only on new lava flows, Fimbristylis hawaiiensis.
Another plant restricted to new lava flows on Hawai'i Island is 'Akia, Wikstroemia uva-ursi.
Some of the plants that Alexei is studying are found right in my garden. Such as this, Ozmoxylon linearis. It contains pseudofruit that the plant produces to attract pollinators to the true flowers.
Alexei's English was not very good, and I have no Russian to offer; but when he would say something like: "Vat ease Cyanea?" I knew what to do.
Here is Cyanea tritomantha in the Pu'u Maka'ala Wildlife Sanctuary.
Alexei left, well pleased with the research he did while here. He said that he had enough research material to help write several papers on rare tropical Arailiads, and other members of the Apiales Order.
Alexei has a lot of material available for viewing and study. He is involved with a large amount of plant research.
Google: Dr. Alexei Oskolski, and Komarov Botanical Institute to find out more.
Here is another view of Clermontia lindseyana with an open flower!
Aloha, Dave
Must have been an interesting excursion. Oddly enough there is a tetraplasandra growing in the gardens of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Barbara, California. Until I saw that specimen I thought they could not survive out of doors in California.
Those Russians get around. Some of the early work done on New Guinea flora was by a Russian botanist. Had to check what exactly Araliaceae were. We only have 3 here in the Territory, although of them the Umbrella Tree (Schefflera actinophylla) would be the most widespread these days.
I can't imagine your Russian coming up with "Cyanea", though. It would have been in Cyrillic script. ;O)
Would have looked more like this: Cуяныя
Sounds like he hooked up with the right guy there in Hawaii!
Dave, what a fun, engaging and enriching opportunity.
Thanks for that picture of the Akia; now I can ID the photo I took of it.
How about this one?
Hi Ardesia, where exactly did you photograph Akia?
The photo is Ohelo, Vaccinium reticulatum, the Hawaiian Blueberry. Beside it is Pukiawe, Styphelia tameiameiae.
Here is another shot of Ohelo in HNVP.
I photogtaphed it in the HV National Park; l was so fascinated how plants could just grow out of lava. Here is still another shot of the "blueberries".
This was amazing to me. I had zoomed in as far as I could for this. The poor little thing was just out by itself, growing in nothing but lava.
This message was edited Jul 30, 2009 3:14 PM
Hi Ardesia, your new shot of "blueberries" is 'Akia, Wikstroemia uva-ursi.
The tree on the lava is 'Ohi'a, Metrosideros polymorpha var. polymorpha.
Nice photos!
gorgeous photos, i didn't really know that some plants grow on lava. you don't get any volcanoes near here! ;-)
westraad
Some plants are survivors.
Nice photo of Nephrolepis multiflora in a lava crack!
cool photo!
Thanks, others were taking pictures of the ocean and I was wandering the lava completly fascinated by how plants could grow in that most inhospitable of materials.
