Kahili Ginger, Volcano’s Invasive Beauty

While driving up from Hilo or even the southern part of the island, you will notice how quickly the temperature and vegetation changes. As you move from the beautiful beaches up to Volcano and its’ rain forest, you witness a lush greenery. However, upon closer inspection most of Volcano’s under story plant is invasive. Kahili Ginger has a beautiful yellow flower and has numerous flowers per stalk. Fragrant and even tasty nectar, the Kahili Ginger is not the kind you can eat (we wish). Unfortunately, kahili ginger has taken over almost everything in Volcano. Seen along the road sides and even in “protected” area’s, this plant spreads through stump sprouting and even when pulled will still come back. So, enough with the negative. While we do have our ginger issues, Volcano is one of the few public places where there is intact, pristine, native rain forest in Hawaii. Even at Volcano Village Lodge, we strive to provide our guests with a “real, authentic” Hawaii experience. We do routine invasive plant removal, and plant mainly native volcano plants. In fact, just the other day I did some exploring around Volcano Village Lodge and found some uncommon native plants. Something that made me so proud. While you step out of car and take in the aesthetics of our landscaping and beauty of the large hapu’u’s (giant tree ferns), just remember that this is a native rain forest