1. Introduction, welcome and start of walk from flag pole
Aloha and welcome to my summit walk here at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. My name is Michael, and I am a volunteer ranger at the park. Our walk looping around the summit of Kilauea Volcano will take you into the rainforest and to beautiful outlooks across the Caldera. During the next 45 minutes or so, I will give you an overview over the richness and diversity of this landscape and how the Hawai‘ians made best use for it. As I am a geologist by training, I will also cover the volcano and its history. So if you are ready, then let‘s go.

Meet the park ranger - start of the Kilauea summit walk

Starting the summit walk

2. The richness of the rainforest
Our first stop is here just across the road at this beautiful Hapu‘u fern (Cibotium menziesii). Look at this giant nurse log at the bottom – that‘s what is supporting the Hapu‘u. In fact, Hawaiians also called these ferns the walking ferns – once the parents have grown too high and they can‘t support their own weight any more, they will crash to the ground and nurture their „keiki“, their children: The cycle repeats as new sprouts will shoot from the nurse tree that has fallen, and the new tree fern will grow several feet away from the former position.
I talked about the richness of the rainforest and how Hawai‘ians used all that was produced from it at my introduction. Let‘s give this a closer look. We could also consider that we are currently standing inside the native Hawaiian „Walmart“ – most of what the people needed was either harvested from the forest or came from the ocean. You may find out that everything that was important for the people carried a name, while the rest did not. Everything had its place and meaning here on the islands, as resources were scarce and work hard to make a living. Nothing that supported the island life was wasted – recycling and using up everything from roots to bark to wood to fruit or ferns or flowers was the standard although the word „sustainability“ did not exist obviously at that time – neat, isn‘t it?!

Hapu'u tree fern - summit walk

Where did all this come from, here to this island more than 2‘000 miles from pretty much anywhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? The solution lies behind the three „Ws“, as we like to call it – the plants that we see here have traveled with the help of these three Ws and have evolved and adapted here to become individual new species found nowhere else on earth. So what are these three?
– Waves, Wind and Wings.

If we turn around here, we will encounter one of the most abundant tree on the big island. It is the one that has these interesting leaves that you find as sicles – or shall we call it half moons? – here on the ground. Does anyone know what it is? It is the Koa tree (Acacia Koa) Koa means „warrior“ or „brave“ in Hawaiian, and it has some of the hardest wood you will find anywhere on the world. This was the tree used to produce canoes, and it was a long and enduring procedure to get the right tree selected, to get it cut down and hollowed out partially. This was done in the forest, sometimes several thousand feet up in elevation, not at the coast. This has an obvious advantage: A hollowed out tree is much easier to carry down to the ocean, and the work was probably also more agreeable in the shady forest. Selecting the right tree was a big ceremony. You had to ask for permission before any tree could be selected and cut. Also, it was a good sign if the Elepaio bird was not found near the tree. The saying goes that the Elepaio bird would be talking to the canoe builders: If it was sitting and singing on the Koa tree for a longer period of time, that meant „This is my tree. You cannot have it“. If the bird flew away, it meant to say „this is your tree, you can have it to build a nice canoe“. Scientists find that Elepaio birds can get to the inner part of the tree and feed if the inner part of the tree is rotten, so this is where the Elepaio indication comes from. If you ever have the chance to visit one of our other National Park sites here on the big island down at the coast toward Kona, Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau, the place where the Ali‘i resided and the place of refuge, you should go and see Charlie. He keeps the tradition of canoe buliding alive and is very knowledgeable about the Koas and canoes.
By the way, talking about finding trees around the world – this one here is „endemic“ to Hawai‘i, which means that it is nowhere else found but on some of our islands. There are four words we want to distinguish when we talk about encountering plants or animals:
• Endemic, or found just in a specific place as I just explained.
• Native, or typical in one place, but also found in other places.
• Introduced, or species originally foreign to a certain place such as Hawai‘i. Once established in the new place, it did not have too negative consquences.
• Invasive, or originally foreign to a certain place but introduced with detrimental consequences. We will be talking about invasive species in a minute.

3. The invasions and dangers to the native forest
With European contact and with more denser settlement on the Hawai‘ian islands, many things changed. Amongst other, new species, both flora and fauna, got introduced. Here, we have stopped at the second most problematic species of plant that was about to take over and push aside the lush native and endemic rain forest plants. Do you know what it is?
It is actually one of the most abundant plants now in parts of the park, like along this trail or also along the Halema‘uma‘u crater trail which we will encounter at the end of our walk. It is called „Kahili Ginger“ by the Hawaiians because of the resemblance to the Hawaiian Kahili, the symbols of Hawaiian Royalty, but I really don‘t like this expression, given to a plant which has nothing to do here: It is Himalayan Yellow Ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum). It is considered as one of the worst alien species, and do you know why it was planted here, what its purpose was? Honestly, it does not have a purpose at all, really. It is purely ornamental and was planted by people in their gardens to look and smell good. In fact, the yellow flowers are quite nice, so is the scent, if you want to take a sniff. The problem, however, is that it does not have any natural predators here, and it can grow really fast and will outgrow and push aside the native flora. The park has invested a lot of money and effort to get it out again, but as you can see, this works only in patches so far and needs to be done right – it is a combination of aggressive herbicides specifically prepared for the ginger and the right weeding technique – it needs both in the right mixture to get it out.

Kahili Ginger - Himalayan Yellow Ginger

Detail of raindrops on Kahili ginger leaf

Detail of Kahili Ginger flower

A good contrast between how native and how invasive species work can be seen here. We discussed the ginger – it grows fast, has large spreading roots and does not like to share, it wants to have it all. Conversely, look at this Koa tree. Do you notice this small plant here, growing out of the stem fork? It is Ohia Lehua, another very important endemic tree that we will talk about at the end of our summit tour. This much for the moment: Koa and Ohia like to share, they don‘t destroy each other but are a very fine example indeed of symbiotic living, of living together.

Symbiotic living: Koa and Ohia

4. Looking at the single worst invasive plant
We have reached a wonderful outlook across the Kilauea caldera towards Halema‘uma‘u, the ongoing active eruption since 2008. But before we turn to the volcano and a little bit about its creation and current activity levels, I need to follow up on what I said before: Kahili – erm, NO, Himalayan Yellow Ginger! – I said was the secondmost problematic invasive species. So what is the most problematic one?

Morella faya - Fire tree invasion

We are looking over it right here, right now: It is the so-called fire tree or Morella faya. It has three very bad habits: It produces incredible amounts of seeds that get eaten by birds and dispersed far and wide. Secondly, it binds a lot of fertile nitrogen to its own life cycle and removes nitrogen that would be needed for the other plants that grow here. Thirdly and lastly, it is a very fast and thick grower, outgrowing and dispersing the slow growing native trees. Once Faya has established itself, it will form such a thick canopy that nothing else will be able to grow in its vicinity, really.
If you look down and across the sides of the caldera, you will see that many light green patches are spreading out – all Faya trees. Also, you may notice other patches of dead trees – ongoing efforts to control (eradicate would be the wrong word as the park will probably not be able to achieve this) and reduce the Faya population.

5. The Kilauea caldera
Did you realize that you are already standing inside an active volcano? Yes, in fact ever since you have passed the entrance gate and come by an „opening“ in a small hill, you have entered the outermost rim of the Kilauea („spewing, much spreading“) caldera. Many hundred years back, we don‘t know it exactly, this used to be a fine mountain with a closed top most probably, where periodes of eruptions from the magma supply below made it grow successively.
However, at one point in time the magma reservoir seemed to be lacking resources and was partially drained. The weight of the mountain above could not be supported, and the top of the volcano collapsed into a wide caldera as we see it mostly today at its boundaries – a typical process for volcanoes.
In the 1800s the caldera begann slowly to refill as magma was pushing up again the reservoir underneath. Some of the first Europeans arriving on the island were witnesses of these events. Events of lava outflow followed period of quiescence, but since the first Europeans were standing here, probably at a very similar place than we are now, the caldera has been filled another 600 feet or so. These were mostly non-explosive, so-called effusive events where lava was flowing out in relative peace. But don‘t be fooled: Kilauea is a very active volcano and when Pele, the goddess that is said to live inside the crater, has her temper, there tend to be explosive events, too. In fact, what we are looking at right now is an explosive event. Until 2008, you could drive around the entire Crater Rim Drive and pull up at an outlook into Halema‘uma‘u Crater. But one night in early 2008, Pele came back to live. Scientists in the morning were astonished to find a gaping hole inside Halema‘uma‘u: A vent had opened and blasted away parts of the overlook – some parts just fell into the crater. They promptly started to investigate in their car but couldn‘t see much as they drove along the now closed portion of Crater Rim Drive in thick VOG, volcanic omitted gases. „Crunch, crunch, bump, oh no, we must have driven off the road!!“. In fact, they had not. The car was still lurching along on the road, but driving over ash and small rocks blasted out during the eruption. While this was a small event compared to what geologists know about previous explosive periods at Kilauea, I think this was a good reminder of Kilauea‘s, or shall we say, Pele‘s, nature.
Ever since 2008, Halema‘uma‘u has been active, and this can be seen all around the Caldera not only by the fumes that we can see currently, but also by small ash ejections that can be found especially in the downwind section, but also by Pele‘s hair, these long volcanic fibres that we sometimes even find here – can you find some lying around you? Let‘s be honest: Kilauea is arguably the most active volcano on earth, because since 2008 we have two simultaneously ongoing eruptions, the one here at the summit and one at Pu‘u O‘o vent on the eastern rift zone, that one without real interruptions since 1983!
Here‘s an outlook how to best see lava – come back to Jaggar museum at night. Halema‘uma‘u is supported by a large lava lake some 180 feet below that gaping hole, and while we see only fumes and smoke during daytime because of the bright surrounding light, at night this is what it will turn into – it will be a fascinating reflection of the lava below!

6. Ohia lehua and two stories of hope
We have arrived at the historic Volcano House Hotel. We hope that it will be reopened soon, as this is a truly inspiring place to stay.
Let‘s look at this knobby tree here. It is called Ohia Lehua, and it is linked to Pele‘s temper, the goddess of fire. Let me offer you the following legend: Once upon a time, there was a nice couple, man and woman. He was called Ohia, and she was Lehua. While Lehua was away on business – probably shopping, Ohia was playing the nose flute. The flute is played with the nose, because it is considered the purest breath that mankind has – through our mouths, we can lie and tell bad stories, so this is not pure breath, or „Ha“, as in the word of „Aloha“, in the sense of „presence of the pure breath of life“. Consequently, foreigners that cause problems are called „Haole“, or without pure breath.
So let‘s turn back to Ohia. As he was playing the nose flute, he looked really beautiful and was attracting other females. They asked him for a date and wanted to be with him, but he turned all of them down by confirming that we has promised to Lehua and that the nose flute playing was only for her – she would be returning very soon. So time went by and more girls came by. Ultimately, a very stubborn young lady arrived and told him: You are very beautiful. You will be my boyfriend. Ohia was confused about this aggressive approach and also turned her down by saying that she must be out of her mind telling him what to do and that he already had a beautiful girlfriend.
Of course, this stubborn and aggressive young lady was the personification of Pele, and she was not the person to be turned down. As she was known to have a temper, she turned angry and shouted at him: „How can you dare turning me down! You will be punished for life!“ and to ensure he would never ever be looked at and considered beautiful, she turned him into this ugly tree with peeling bark and unsophisticated green leaves – the Ohia tree.
As Lehua returned, she was astonished to find that her boyfriend was no longer here. She was looking out for him, but nowhere could she find her beloved Ohia. Where had he gone? Something was strange, however – she could feel his presence although he was not here. Ultimately, she discovered that this tree here must be him, and she started to cry. She pledged to the gods that they return him to her, but they all feared the ferocity of Pele and would not do anything to make her anger turn to them. Lehue pledged and whined, and in the end she said that she would be ready to do everything to be together with him, that she would give her live. The gods conferred and admitted that they could do something – as she was willing to give her life, they turned her into the red flowers that you see on the Ohia trees, the Lehue flowers. So Ohia and Lehua were reunited forever, as the tree and the red flowers on it.
The saying goes that noone must ever separate them, otherwise Lehue would start to cry again. So whenever it rains on the windward side of the island, especially here and around Hilo, you may hear people saying: „Who has taken the flower from the tree?!“

So this was my first story of love and hope. The other one is about the invasive and the native species. There is hope that the adaptation and the very intricate mechanisms that the endemic species have developed will help make them survive even the intrustions by the invasive ones. As an example, the Ohia trees here have adapted to living in a volcanic environment. They can open and close their pores through which they breathe according to the toxic conditions of Kilauea. Whenever they sense that too much SO2 and other toxis gases are in the air, they can close their pores and wait for better conditions to breath again – another example of hope.
With this I want to conclude the walk today and thank you for coming out with me. Mahalo and good continuation of your discovery of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

Ohia Lehua