Yellow Lehua Blossom And Buds
by Venetia Featherstone-Witty
Title
Yellow Lehua Blossom And Buds
Artist
Venetia Featherstone-Witty
Medium
Photograph - Photographs
Description
Metrosideros polymorpha, the ʻōhiʻa lehua, is a species of flowering evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that is endemic to the six largest islands of Hawaiʻi. It is a highly variable tree, being 66 to 82 ft tall in favorable situations, and much smaller when growing in boggy soils or 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, the volcano goddess, and to Laka, the goddess of hula. ʻŌhiʻa trees grow easily on lava, and are usually the very first plants to grow on new lava flows.The yellow blossom is more rare than the most widely recognised red one.The tree itself is referred to as an ʻōhiʻa tree, and the blossoms are called lehua flowers. This distinction comes from Hawaiian mythology, in which ʻŌhiʻa was a handsome warrior and Lehua was his beautiful lover, and they were transformed into a tree and its flowers, respectively.
FEATURED 11/19/14 in "Beautiful Flowers"
Uploaded
November 11th, 2014
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