02-05-2010, 03:08 PM
Peter,
I think the dead ohi'as along the road to bird park may have been caused by a fire(? - Not 100% sure on that one), but I do know that Bird Park and the kipuka further up the road are places where cohort die back has been cited as the reason for ohi'a death.
What little I understand about cohort die back goes something like this: a whole bunch of ohi'as, which are pretty much the same age because they all started out together on a new substrate whenever conditions were good enough for sprouting (like maybe a layer of new ash settled), reached the natural end of their lifespans and die all at once, in alarming numbers. I guess the max lifespan of ohi'as vary depending on stuff like rainfall and soil. I know there are some very old ones up in Hakalau - one is even supposed to be around 500+ years old.
Please correct me if anyone knows better about any of this.
Boring insects have attacked lama trees (but no ohi'a yet) where I live and that was the original reason my friend from UH came to have a look. I sent root samples to the Ag dept to have them look for fungal pathogens, but those tests were inconclusive. The insects, they said, are most probably a secondary problem (so they just attacked already dying trees). They suggested I send sections of the wood, hopefully with the insects still in there, to the Ag dept in Hilo and I'm working on that now. Maybe that would be good for you to do as well, if you can.
A lot of folks have tried to help me figure out what is going on with the lamas, but the thing that keeps coming up is the effect of weeds like the increasing numbers of strawberry guava. I've been told that sometimes the damage may be happening and go unnoticed for a long time, and then suddenly the tree declines and dies. Also, I've learned that not a whole lot is really known about native Hawaiian tree pathology, so I guess we're all learning as we go. I'd be interested in whatever you find out.
I think the dead ohi'as along the road to bird park may have been caused by a fire(? - Not 100% sure on that one), but I do know that Bird Park and the kipuka further up the road are places where cohort die back has been cited as the reason for ohi'a death.
What little I understand about cohort die back goes something like this: a whole bunch of ohi'as, which are pretty much the same age because they all started out together on a new substrate whenever conditions were good enough for sprouting (like maybe a layer of new ash settled), reached the natural end of their lifespans and die all at once, in alarming numbers. I guess the max lifespan of ohi'as vary depending on stuff like rainfall and soil. I know there are some very old ones up in Hakalau - one is even supposed to be around 500+ years old.
Please correct me if anyone knows better about any of this.
Boring insects have attacked lama trees (but no ohi'a yet) where I live and that was the original reason my friend from UH came to have a look. I sent root samples to the Ag dept to have them look for fungal pathogens, but those tests were inconclusive. The insects, they said, are most probably a secondary problem (so they just attacked already dying trees). They suggested I send sections of the wood, hopefully with the insects still in there, to the Ag dept in Hilo and I'm working on that now. Maybe that would be good for you to do as well, if you can.
A lot of folks have tried to help me figure out what is going on with the lamas, but the thing that keeps coming up is the effect of weeds like the increasing numbers of strawberry guava. I've been told that sometimes the damage may be happening and go unnoticed for a long time, and then suddenly the tree declines and dies. Also, I've learned that not a whole lot is really known about native Hawaiian tree pathology, so I guess we're all learning as we go. I'd be interested in whatever you find out.
Uluhe Design
Native Landscape Design
uluhedesign@yahoo.com
Native Landscape Design
uluhedesign@yahoo.com