Small Things on a Big Island

Spring break time! I love how travelling gives you fresh eyes, especially when exploring different bioregions, where so much is unfamiliar and therefore so interesting. We recently returned from a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. We heard house finches singing and roosters crowing, but almost everything else was different from at home. 

Here are some of my favorite small and strange nature things from the trip.

These seed pods were at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden just north of Hilo. They caught my eye with their almost-heart shape. I assumed it would be easy to figure out what these were later; I was wrong! Google Lens identified them as moon snails. Definitely nope. I regretted not examining the plant or tree they came from more carefully. After trying iNaturalist Seek and many, many random image searches, I had the idea of asking an expert: I emailed the botanical garden. I sent them the photo, and they replied a couple of hours later (nice!). These are fruits of the sea putat tree or box fruit tree (Baringtonia asiatica). The flowers are pink and white tassels like mimosa flowers (we saw some of them on the ground as well, but I didn't take pictures - here's a photo from Wikimedia Commons). 
The sea putat trees are also known as fish poison trees. They are not native to Hawaii, but to the Indian Ocean, tropical Asia and the western Pacific Ocean. The fruits can float and colonize new islands like coconuts. The were some of the first plants to colonize Krakatoa after it's massive eruption. The ground seeds, fruit, or possibly bark is dropped into tide pools to stun or kill fish. The fish are apparently suffocated by taking the poison into their gills, but their meat does not become poisonous. Some sources said that all parts of the sea putat tree are poisonous to humans, others said the fruits are edible, and that some parts are used medicinally. I wonder if information about different species in the genus might be jumbled? My thought is definitely to respect my inner fish and NOT eat a fruit that is called fish poison.

Another favorite thing I found on the ground at the botanical garden was this:

This one Google Lens easily identified. It's part of the flower of the cannon ball tree.  On the tree, this structure would be surrounded by magnolia-like petals. The sea anemone tentacles inside and on the flower are actually stamens, the male structures of flowers. The tree has round fruits that dangle from its trunk shaped like, well, cannon balls. It's native to Brazil.

Here is one last strange fruit. 



This fruit came from the farmer's market in Kea'au, south of Hilo. It's called rambutan, and originates in Malaysia or Indonesia. A vendor insisted I try one, and that sample convinced me to buy a bag for dessert. You twist and pull the spiny exterior off to reveal a fruit that looks like an egg, with a large seed inside. It's very sweet, with a mellow vanilla taste and a texture like firm gelatin. When we got back to our rental unit, the first thing we saw was our next-door neighbors eating their way through a bag of rambutan as well.

Back in Seattle, spring is in full swing and there's lots of nature to be noticing!


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