2 
MAUNA KEA PLANT LIST 
C. J. Kraebel, Asst. Superintendent of Forestry. 
The list of plants here presented is merely an elaboration oi a 
list which was casually made in May, 1921, during a trip w^th 
the botanist J. F. Rock up the northeast slope of Mauna Kea, on 
the Island of Hawaii. The list covers the region from Kukaiau 
to the limit of abundant vegetation at about 10,000 feet, the route 
carrying past Keanakolu and Puu Kihe. From its very casual 
nature the list does not pretend to be a complete botanical tran- 
sect of the region covered and is published for what interest it 
may have to ranchers and to botanists and travellers in the region. 
An interesting feature is the considerable number of introduced 
plants, over forty per cent of the entire list, which are now well 
established on the mountain. It will be noted from the key 
letters, however, that these are all grasses and herbaceous plants, 
many of them worthless weeds, which have been introduced 
with forage grass seeds in the process of range improvement, 
Ornamental plants at ranch stations and the numerous plantations 
of Eucalyptus set out in the region were not considered. 
For the identification Mr. Rock was the principal authority, 
and it was, in fact, his characteristic habit of constantly calling 
out the name of any plant seen for the first time in the day that 
suggested making the list. The purpose of the trip was to se- 
cure seeds of the akala, the large native raspberry, for propa- 
gation by the United States Bureau of Plant Industry, and also 
a specimen of silversword for the National Museum at Wash- 
ington. An article on the akala berry, illustrated with photo- 
graphs taken on this trip, was published by Mr. Rock in the 
Journal of Heredity for April, 1921, Volume XII, No. 4. 
For the sake of brevity the following key letters are used to 
describe the plants, and it is in these brief descriptions that the 
interest lies : 
G — grass T— -tree w — weed 
H — herb F — fern iN" — native 
S — shrub f — forage x>lant I — introduced 
t — small tree p — poisonous 
Hawaiian Key 
Scientific Names English Names Names Letters 
Acacia Tcoa Jiawaiiensis . .Koa on Hawaii 
Island Koa T - N 
AcMllaea millefolium . . .Common Yarrow, 
MiUefoil Hwl 
Agrostis plumosa Bent Grass G - I 
Alsine sp Sandwort H w I 
Anagallis arvensis Bed Chickweed; 
Poisonweed H w p I 
Antidesma platyphyllum Haa, Hame . . .T - N 
Argemone mexicana . . . .Mexican Poppy Puakala H w N 
Argyroxiphium sand- 
wicense Silversword Ahinahina . . . .H - N 
Asplenium adiantum 
nigrum Mountain Fern 
(7000 feet) Iwaiwa F - N 
