Slow and steady –rain… and you’re going to be as wet and the rain forest itself.. Escorted by friend Pat Bily we were treated to a wonderful hike through The Nature Conservancy’s Waikamoi Preserve today.    —The 5,230 acre Waikamoi Preserve  provides an important sanctuary for hundreds of native Hawaiian plants and animals. It’s high-elevation rain forest and alpine shrubland are home to 12 different native bird species, seven of them endangered, as well as spectacular plants like the blue ??pelu, a native lobelia.

A walk in Waikamoi in the rain

A walk in Waikamoi in the rain {click to enlarge}


A man and HIS lichen.. Pat Bily proudly holds up some of the recently identified lichen named in honor of him...!

A man and HIS lichen.. Pat Bily proudly holds up some of the recently identified lichen named in honor of him…!

We're thoroughly soaked at this point... but it's a  tropical rain forest  -it's like this a lot!

We’re thoroughly soaked at this point… but it’s a tropical rain forest -it’s like this a lot! {click to enlarge}

Lichens Lichens everywhere

Lichens Lichens everywhere {click to enlarge}

Click and scroll right

Click and scroll right

Jane’s phone [Nokia Lumia] takes better pictures than my camera!
These -below, are all from her phone!!{Click to enlarge}

world-on-a-tree

fern3

fernish

lichens-jms

fungus

pink

ferns

berries

What looks like spits of sunshine below is simply new vibrant growth!

cedar