Puu Kukui is a mountain peak in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, the highest of the

West Maui Mountains The West Maui Mountains, West Maui Volcano, or Mauna Kahālāwai (which means "holding house of water") are the remnants of an eroded shield volcano that constitutes the western quarter of Maui. Approximately 1.7 million years old, the volcano's ...

(Mauna Kahalawai). The summit rises above the Puu Kukui Watershed Management Area, an private nature preserve maintained by the

Maui Land & Pineapple Company Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (ML&P, ) is a land holding and operating company founded in 1909 and based in Kapalua, Hawaii, United States. It owns approximately on the island of Maui. It develops, sells, and manages residential, resort, ...

. The peak was formed by a

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

whose

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

eroded Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is disti ...

into what is now the

Iao Valley ʻĪao Valley ( Hawaiian: ''Īao'': "cloud supreme", pronounced similar to "EE-yow") is a lush, stream-cut valley in West Maui, Hawaii, located west of Wailuku. Because of its natural environment and history, it has become a tourist location. ...

. 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 Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

Kauai Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 m ...

, Rainwater unable to drain away flows into a

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

. The

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 re ...

is dense, deep, and

acidic An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis acid. The first category of acids are the ...

. Puu Kukui is home to many

endemic 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 foun ...

plants, insects, and birds, including the greensword (''

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 ...

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 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 ...

soil, many species, such as the ''ōhia'', are represented as dwarfs. Access to the area is restricted to researchers and conservationists.

References

External links

* {{US prominent Volcanoes of Maui Nui Polygenetic shield volcanoes Hotspot volcanoes Wetlands of Hawaii Landforms of Maui Nature reserves in Hawaii Protected areas of Maui

See also

References

External links