Ohias dying

[Mitzi M]

A friend of mine from the UH cooperative extension came out to look at the forest near where I live recently. He had been called to see some other dying ohi'a's on another property in lower Puna. It seems a lot of ohi'a's are dying in lots of places and it started before the worst of the drought set in. None of these ohi'a's my friend saw had any rust. Actually, I didn't realize that the rust which specifically targets ohi'a's had made it here to the BI. (Carey, maybe you can fill me in on that one.) There is a harmless native gall wasp that makes red-orange raised galls on ohi'a leaves, which I suppose could be easily mistaken for rust also. My friend said that most all of the ohi'a's he saw were badly overrun with strawberry guava and other weeds, and he believes that's what is doing them in. It does seem like a whole lot of them have died suddenly, but whenever there is drought or other stress, the weeds tip the balance and a lot seem to go at once. My pal also said he didn't think it was the phenomenon known as cohort die back. It really is distressing. I'd be interested in anything else anyone finds out.

Mitzi