satellite view from PMNM
E komo mai; welcome! Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is surrounded by a lei of foam in the middle of the North Pacific; it's a beautiful, special place.

Not only are there albatross on Midway, but many other interesting kinds of wildlife, both on the land and in the sea. Please enjoy exploring FOAM, an educational blog actively done while on Midway from May through August 2010. Posts are added from off-Midway, as information becomes available. If you're interested in a particular topic, please use the search box or the alphabetical list of "labels" along the left side of the blog page.

Showing posts with label Tribulus cistoides. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tribulus cistoides. Show all posts

Friday, July 9, 2010

Mega-Thorns!

Most native Hawaiian plants don't have thorns, right?  Nobody told that to the indigenous Nohu, or Puncture (get it? get it? "puncture" means to get a hole in something) Vine (Tribulus cistoides)!!

Pretty little yellow flower, huh?  And kinda nice leaves...but take a close look at those green seed pods.  I hope the picture is big enough for you to see that those seed pods have some serious thorns.

And the picture to the right shows a close-up of the seed pods when they've dried out and turned brownish.

And the picture on the left shows what the seed pods look like stuck into the bottom of my shoes!  I got so many seeds in my shoes during my walk around Eastern Island that it felt like I had rocks attached to the soles!  Don't even THINK about going barefoot!