1994
(cont.)
EER rai
August 21,
—
Palumbo:
"Land plants were collected by soils men, but
did have a chance to look over and photograph the vegetation.
The island looked undisturbed.
seen,
most with good growth.
feet tall
The tallest trees were about 15
(Messerschmidia and Fisonia),
chewed by insects.
the latter often with leaves
Scaevola is abundant as is Lepturus.
seen were Triumfetta,
Fleurya,
Eight species of plants were
an annual,
Guettarda and Inomoea tuba.
Others
One stand of
was seen in a Scaevola thicket.
The lagoon algae consisted of infrequent clumps of Halimeda
attached to the almost bare dead coral in the region of heavy
surf.
A few plants of Udotea and Caulerpa were noted.
one of the most barren areas seen to date.
This is
The new coral growth
seemed to ke excellent, with the massive encrusting coral being
dominant.
On the seaward flats,
near shore,
9 species were noted,
the
most common being Codium and Halimeda; the others were definitely
less frequent,
and usually mixed with the dominant species.
species of coral were seen in this area,
tinue to
increase
in numbers
of
Many
and probably will con-
individual
colonies,
gince most
of them appear to be actively growing. "
OG