Tara Severns

Location: Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai‘i.

A tuft of vegetation clings to a smooth-barked tree trunk in a lush tropical forest.

Pyrrhobryum spiniforme moss, Wahine Noho Mauna fern (Adenophorus tamariscinus), Leucobryum sp. moss, and Lauaʻe Haole—Golden Polypoidy (Phlebotium aureum) fern on Waiawī—Strawberry Guava (Psidium cattleianum).

Clusters of wooly, rice-shaped cocoons attached to the underside of a tomato plant leaf.

Cocoons of a tiny, parasitic wasp (Cotesia sp.), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A close up of a small, creeping plant with bright green opposite leaves and red-blushed growing tips.

Dwarf St. John's Wort (Hypericum mutilum), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

Large twig-like insect standing across an open human hand, with extremely long thin legs and a narrow brown body that resembles a dry stick.

Pinkwing Stick Insect (Sipyloidea chlorotica), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A plant with folded compound leaves, a pink puffball flower, a seed head developing from the remains of a flower, and several reddish seed heads grows among other weeds.

Pua Hilahila—Sleeping Grass (Mimosa pudica), introduced. Waiākea, Hilo, Hawaiʻi.

A yellow-orange fern front rises straight up from a lush bed of foliage.

Sword Fern (likely the introduced Nephrolepis brownii) surrounded by the introduced Trailing Daisy (Sphagneticola trilobata). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A flower with four, pale pink petals.

False Meadowbeauty (Pterolepis glomerata), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A potted plant with a hot pink flower and dark red-green pointed leaves.

New Guinea Impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri), introduced (cultivated). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

Bright lime-green tree fern frond, finely divided leaflets forming delicate feather-like pattern above rocks.

Hāpuʻu Pulu (Cibotium glaucum), endemic. Waahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A brown frog with metallic gold eyes sits on a shiny surface.

Coqui (Eleutherodactylus coqui), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A wide, fleshy pink mushroom cap in short grass.

Blewit (Lepista tarda). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai’i.

A solitary stalk of a large grass grows next to a white shipping container, displaying a large, airy, feather duster-like flower head.

Guinea Grass (Megathyrsus maximus), introduced. Waiākea, Hilo, Hawaiʻi.

Haha! Felis *catus* (cursed autocorrect)

A single, yellow-green new fern frond unrolls itself above a lush carpet of moss amidst sedge leaves.

Kupukupu — Sword Fern (Nephrolepis sp.). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

Two cats sit on a fallen tree trunk in the woods facing opposite directions. One is white with gray patches and the other is orange and white.

Domestic cats (Felis cactus), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A vine with heart-shaped leaves and a yellow flower entwines with a spiral of razor wire on a fence in an industrial park.

Fence Morning-Glory (Ipomoea ochracea), introduced. Waiākea, Hilo, Hawaiʻi.

A small flower with four pale pink petals.

False Meadowbeauty (Pterolepis glomerata), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaii.

Backlit translucent, gelatinous, fan-shaped mushrooms on a dead tree branch in a forest.

Tetrapyrgos alba. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai‘i.

A plant forms a flat, low mat on the soil. It has fleshy green lobes that repeatedly fork, creating a small, coral-like rosette.

Crystalwort (Riccia sp.). Waiākea, Hilo, Hawaiʻi.

A vine growing on a chain link fence is covered in dark green leaves and hundreds of orange tube flowers.

Flame Vine (Pyrostegia venusta), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A toad sits on rocky ground . It has red-brown, bumpy skin, a flat squat body, and yellow eyelids.

Cane Toad (Rhinella marina), introduced. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai‘i.

A rough, red orange fungus with a shiny, leather-like appearance growing as a crust on log.

A polypore fungus, likely the pan-tropical Earliella scabrosa. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai’i.

Overlapping palm fronds shaped like unfurled folded fans with contrasting colors and striking light and dark areas viewed from below against a blue sky.

Fiji Fan Palm (Pritchardia pacifica), introduced. Honolulu, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i.

A brown bird with a white throat, black-banded eyes, and a black beak on short grass. It has a seed in its beak.

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), introduced. Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.

A showy tropical flower with alternating, boat-shaped red orange bracts from which yellow-green tube flowers are splayed vertically.

Parrot’s Beak (Psittacorum x spathocircinata ‘Guyana’), introduced (cultivated). Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.

Fern fronds snake down between two moss-covered tree trunks.

Sword Fern (Nephrolepis sp.). Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai‘i.

A transluscent white jelly fungus with a ruffle-like form grows on a log.

Snow Fungus (Tremella fuciformis), cosmopolitan. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawaiʻi.

A bright red leaf viewed on edge with multiple onion-domed yellow and brown galls visible on the upper and lower surfaces. It rests on a lush bed of a bright green, feathery, forked moss.

A leaf of the invasive strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum) with galls formed by a scale insect (Tectococcus ovatus) introduced as a biocontrol. The leaf rests on a bed of moss, possibly an endemic Bazzania sp. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai‘i.

A silhouette of a hawk soaring above in a partly sunny sky.

ʻIo—Hawaiian Hawk (Buteo solitarius), endemic. Waikahekaheiki, Puna, Hawai‘i.