Puʻu Kukui
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Puʻu Kukui
Puu Kukui is a mountain peak in Hawaii, the highest of the West Maui Mountains (Mauna Kahalawai). 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 receives an average of of rain a year, making it one of the wettest spots on Earth and third wettest in the state after Big Bog on Maui and Mount Waialeale on Kauai, 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 acidic peat soil, many species, such as the ''ōhia'', are represented as dwarfs. Access to the area is r ...
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List Of The Most Prominent Summits Of The United States
The following sortable table comprises the 200 Topographic prominence, most topographically prominent Summit, mountain peaks of the United States, United States of America. The summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three principal ways: #The Elevation, topographic elevation of a summit measures the height of the summit above a Geoid, geodetic sea level.All elevations in the 48 U.S. state, 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 Survey]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 Elevation, topographic elevation difference between the sum ...
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Big Bog, Maui
The Big Bog is a high-altitude bog on the island of Maui, the largest in the Hawaiian Islands. It is located on Haleakala'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 according to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. While the summit of Mount Waiʻaleʻale on Kauai has long been considered the wettest place in the Hawaiian Islands, and was claimed to be the second wettest place on Earth, its NOAA-reported annual rainfall of is exceeded by Big Bog's 30-year average. 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 high ...
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Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most common components in peat, although many other plants can contribute. The biological features of sphagnum mosses act to create a habitat aiding peat formation, a phenomenon termed 'habitat manipulation'. Soils consisting primarily of peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding or stagnant water obstructs the flow of oxygen from the atmosphere, slowing the rate of decomposition. Peat properties such as organic matter content and saturated hydraulic conductivity can exhibit high spatial heterogeneity. Peatlands, particularly bogs, are the primary source of peat; although less common, other wetlands, including fens, pocosins and peat swamp forests, also deposit peat. Landscapes covered in peat are home to sp ...
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Hawaiian Lobelioids
The Hawaiian lobelioids are a group of flowering plants in the bellflower family, Campanulaceae, subfamily Lobelioideae, all of which are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. This is the largest plant radiation in the Hawaiian Islands, and indeed the largest on any island archipelago, with over 125 species. The six genera involved can be broadly separated based on growth habit: ''Clermontia'' are typically branched shrubs or small trees, up to tall, with fleshy fruits; ''Cyanea'' and ''Delissea'' are typically unbranched or branching only at the base, with a cluster of relatively broad leaves at the apex and fleshy fruits; ''Lobelia'' and ''Trematolobelia'' have long thin leaves down a single, non-woody stem and capsular fruits with wind-dispersed seeds; and the peculiar ''Brighamia'' have a short, thick stem with a dense cluster of broad leaves, elongate white flowers, and capsular fruits. The relationships among the genera and sections remains unsettled . Many species have beauti ...
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Metrosideros Polymorpha
''Metrosideros polymorpha'', the ''ōhia lehua'',; is a species of flowering evergreen tree in the Myrtus, myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that is Endemism, endemic to the six largest Hawaiian Islands, islands of Hawaii, Hawaii. It is a member of the diverse ''Metrosideros'' genus, which are widespread over the southwest Pacific. It is the state tree of Hawai'i. It is a highly variable tree, being tall in favorable situations, and a much smaller prostrate shrub when growing in Hawaiian tropical rainforests#Bogs, 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 (deity), 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. ''Metrosideros polymorpha'' is commonly called a ''lehua'' tree, or an ' ...
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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 ''Argy ...
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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 radiation of over 50 species, including the physically different genera '' Dubautia'' and '' Wilkesia''. This grouping is often referred to as the silversword alliance. . Baldwin. Age and Rate of Diversification of the Hawaiian Silversword Alliance (Compositae). 1998./ref> Botanist P. H. Raven referred to this radiation as "the best example of adaptive radiation in plants". Description Species in ''Argyroxiphium'' are perennial, 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 covered with trichomes that provide protection from f ...
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Endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or, in scientific literature, as an ''endemite''. Similarly, many species found in the Western ghats of India are examples of endemism. Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in a particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology, because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area or b ...
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Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine
Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of Maui County's five islands, along with Molokai, Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokini. In 2020, Maui had a population of 168,307, the third-highest of the Hawaiian Islands, behind Oahu and Hawaii Island. Kahului is the largest census-designated place (CDP) on the island, with a 2020 population of 28,219. It is Maui's commercial and financial hub. Wailuku is the county seat and was the third-largest CDP . Other significant populated areas include Kīhei (including Wailea and Makena in the Kihei Town CDP), Lāhainā (including Kāanapali and Kapalua in the Lāhainā Town CDP), and Upcountry Maui (including Makawao, Pukalani, Kula, and Ulupalakua), although Lāhainā was mostly destroyed by fire in 2023. Once part of Maui Nui, Maui is dominated by two volcanic features: Haleakalā in th ...
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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 availability by controlling the chemical forms of the different nutrients and influencing the chemical reactions they undergo. The optimum pH range for most plants is between 5.5 and 7.5; however, many plants have adapted to thrive at pH values ...
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Soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by restricting the former term specifically to displaced soil. Soil consists of a solid collection 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 ...
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Hawaiian Tropical Rainforests
The Hawaiian tropical rainforests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in the Hawaiian Islands. They cover an area of in the windward lowlands and montane regions of the islands. Coastal mesic forests are found at elevations from sea level to . Mixed mesic forests occur at elevations of , while wet forests are found from . Moist bogs and shrublands exist on montane plateaus and depressions. For the 28 million years of existence of the Hawaiian Islands, they have been isolated from the rest of the world by vast stretches of the Pacific Ocean, and this isolation has resulted in the evolution of an incredible diversity of endemic species, including fungi, mosses, snails, birds, and other wildlife. In the lush, moist forests high in the mountains, trees are draped with vines, orchids, ferns, and mosses. This ecoregion includes one of the world's wettest places, the slopes of Mount Waialeale, which average of rainfall per year. Coastal mesic forests Coastal mesic ...
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