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Puʻu Kukui
Puu Kukui is a mountain peak in Hawaii. It is the highest peak of Mauna Kahalawai (the West Maui Mountains). The summit rises above the Puu Kukui Watershed Management Area, an private nature preserve maintained by the Maui Land & Pineapple Company. The peak was formed by a volcano whose caldera eroded into what is now the Iao Valley. Puu Kukui is one of the wettest spots on Earth and the third wettest in the state after Big Bog, Maui and Mount Waialeale, receiving an average of of rain a year. Rainwater unable to drain away flows into a bog. The soil is dense, deep, and acidic. Puu Kukui is home to many endemic plants, insects, and birds, including the greensword ('' Argyroxiphium grayanum''), a distinctive bog variety of ''ōhia lehua'' ('' Metrosideros polymorpha var. pseudorugosa'') and many '' lobelioid'' species. Due to the mountain peak's extreme climate and peat soil, many species, such as the ''ōhia'', are represented as dwarfs. Access to the area is restricte ...
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List Of The Most Prominent Summits Of The United States
The following sortable table comprises the 200 most topographically prominent mountain peaks of the United States of America. The summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three principal ways: #The topographic elevation of a summit measures the height of the summit above a geodetic sea level.All elevations in the 48 states of the contiguous United States include an elevation adjustment from the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD 29) to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). For further information, please see this United States National Geodetic Surveybr>noteIf the elevation or prominence of a summit is calculated as a range of values, the arithmetic mean is shown. #The topographic prominence of a summit is a measure of how high the summit rises above its surroundings.The topographic prominence of a summit is the topographic elevation difference between the summit and its highest or key col to a higher summit. The summit may be near its ke ...
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Big Bog, Maui
The Big Bog on the island of Maui is the largest high-altitude bog in the Hawaiian Islands. It is located on East Maui Volcano's east rift zone, at the border between Hāna Forest Reserve and Haleakalā National Park. It is alleged to be one of the wettest places on earth, with a reported annual rainfall of for the period 1992-2018. Climate The Big Bog has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen '' Af''), with no observable dry season and nearly constant torrential rainfall. Prior to the establishment of the station there in 1992, rainfall for Big Bog was estimated at around per year. However, the first full year of recorded data showed of rainfall, which is one of the highest annual rainfall totals measured in the Hawaiian Islands. Since then, the annual average has been recorded as . Clear days are essentially nonexistent, and even when it is not raining, it is almost certainly cloudy or foggy. The lack of adequate drainage has caused moisture to accumulate, forming th ...
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Metrosideros Polymorpha
''Metrosideros polymorpha'', the ''ōhia lehua'', is a species of flowering evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that is endemic to the six largest islands of Hawaii. It is a highly variable tree, being tall in favorable situations, and a much smaller prostrate shrub when growing in boggy soils or directly on basalt. It produces a brilliant display of flowers, made up of a mass of stamens, which can range from fiery red to yellow. Many native Hawaiian traditions refer to the tree and the forests it forms as sacred to Pele, the volcano goddess, and to Laka, the goddess of hula. Ōhia trees grow easily on lava, and are usually the first plants to grow on new lava flows. It is a common misconception that the word ''ōhia'' is used to refer to the tree and that the word ''lehua'' refers only to its flowers. ''The Hawaiian Dictionary'' (Pukui and Elbert 1986: 199) defines ''lehua'' with these words: "The flower of the ''ōhia'' tree... ''also the tree itself'' mphasis ...
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Argyroxiphium Grayanum
''Argyroxiphium grayanum'', commonly known as the greensword, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, and a member of the silversword alliance, a group of over 50 species which are diverse in morphology and habitat but are genetically closely related. The silversword alliance provides a convincing natural case study in evolution by adaptive radiation, with the greensword representing one extreme of the genus' plasticity. Some ''Argyroxiphium'', including the well-known Haleakala and Mauna Kea silverswords, live in harsh alpine desert-like conditions of heat, sun, wind, and aridity, and are drought-adapted plants capable of storing water as a gel in leaf structures which are normally air pockets in other plants. However, ''A. grayanum'' is a bog plant adapted to very different conditions – excessive moisture, lack of regular sunlight, and cool temperatures, and its leaves are non-succulent like those of the related genus ''Dubautia''. Description ''Argyro ...
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Argyroxiphium
''Argyroxiphium'' is a small genus of plants in the family Asteraceae. Its members are known by the common names silversword or greensword due to their long, narrow leaves and the silvery hairs on some species. The silverswords belong to a larger Adaptive radiation, radiation of over 50 species, including the physically different genera ''Dubautia'' and ''Wilkesia''. This grouping is often referred to as the silversword alliance.[B. Baldwin. Age and Rate of Diversification of the Hawaiian Silversword Alliance (Compositae). 1998.] Botanist P. H. Raven referred to this radiation as "the best example of adaptive radiation in plants". Description Species in ''Argyroxiphium'' are Perennial plant, perennial, Rosette (botany), rosette-forming shrubs. They may consist of a single large rosette or a collection of several rosettes. In all ''Argyroxiphium'' species, long, narrow leaves contain interstitial gels hypothesized to function as water storage. For some species, leaves are cove ...
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Bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. B ...
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Insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. Their blood is not totally contained in vessels; some circulates in an open cavity known as the haemocoel. Insects are the most diverse group of animals; they include more than a million described species and represent more than half of all known living organisms. The total number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million; In: potentially over 90% of the animal life forms on Earth are insects. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans, which are dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans, which recent research has indicated insects are nested within. Nearly all insects hatch from eggs. ...
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Plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes (the archaea and bacteria). By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (Latin name for "green plants") which is sister of the Glaucophyta, and consists of the green algae and Embryophyta (land plants). The latter includes the flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns and their allies, hornworts, liverworts, and mosses. Most plants are multicellular organisms. Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic or mycotrophic and have lost the ...
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Endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example '' Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. '' Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to ...
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Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which also includes Molokai, Lānai, and unpopulated Kahoolawe. In 2020, Maui had a population of 168,307, the third-highest of the Hawaiian Islands, behind that of Oahu and Hawaii Island. Kahului is the largest census-designated place (CDP) on the island with a population of 26,337 , and is the commercial and financial hub of the island. Wailuku is the seat of Maui County and is the third-largest CDP . Other significant places include Kīhei (including Wailea and Makena in the Kihei Town CDP, the island's second-most-populated CDP), Lāhainā (including Kāanapali and Kapalua in the Lāhainā Town CDP), Makawao, Pukalani, Pāia, Kula, Haikū, and Hāna. Etymology Native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the island's name in the ...
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Soil PH
Soil pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of a soil. Soil pH is a key characteristic that can be used to make informative analysis both qualitative and quantitatively regarding soil characteristics. pH is defined as the negative logarithm (base 10) of the activity of hydronium ions ( or, more precisely, ) in a solution. In soils, it is measured in a slurry of soil mixed with water (or a salt solution, such as  ), and normally falls between 3 and 10, with 7 being neutral. Acid soils have a pH below 7 and alkaline soils have a pH above 7. Ultra-acidic soils (pH 9) are rare. Soil pH is considered a master variable in soils as it affects many chemical processes. It specifically affects plant nutrient Plant nutrition is the study of the chemical elements and compounds necessary for plant growth and reproduction, plant metabolism and their external supply. In its absence the plant is unable to complete a normal life cycle, or that the element i ... ...
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Soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former term specifically to displaced soil. Soil consists of a solid phase of minerals and organic matter (the soil matrix), as well as a porous phase that holds gases (the soil atmosphere) and water (the soil solution). Accordingly, soil is a three-state system of solids, liquids, and gases. Soil is a product of several factors: the influence of climate, relief (elevation, orientation, and slope of terrain), organisms, and the soil's parent materials (original minerals) interacting over time. It continually undergoes development by way of numerous physical, chemical and biological processes, which include weathering with associated erosion. Given its complexity and strong internal connectedness, soil ecologists regard soil as an ecosystem. Most ...
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