Ecological Site Description Ecological Site Characteristics Site Identification

State 1, Plant Community 1, Native Dwarf Forest plant community.

This state consists of one plant community. It has an intact or diminished overstory of ohia trees with a dense understory of alien herbs, shrubs, ferns, grasses, and small trees. Native tree diversity is somewhat lower than in the Native Dwarf Forest. Kahili ginger can be particularly abundant, forming a deep, dense ground cover. Strawberry guava also invades aggressively and is able to emerge through dense ginger stands. Native species are unable to regenerate in this plant community and eventually die out. Some small native ferns persist on tree trunks and limbs. Where sphagnum cover is relatively shallow, digging and rooting by pigs removes the sphagnum cover completely, exposing the mineral soil beneath. These bare soil patches are easily invaded by weeds such as Hilograss, water smartweed, and cane tibouchina.

B = weed control; E = exclusion of ungulates; F = native plant restoration.

It may be possible to recreate a plant community resembling Native Forest from Weedy Dwarf Forest. Before restoration of native plants, alien understory plants must be eliminated by weed control methods, and ungulates must be excluded from the restoration site.
To State 3, Weed Thicket, via “A&C”:

A = weed invasion; C = loss of native species due to lack of regeneration.