August 21, .1964
Palumbo:
(cont.)
“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
Eight species of plants were
The tallest trees were about 15
(Messerschmidia and Pisonia),
chewed by insects.
the latter often with leaves
Scaevola is abundant as is Lepturus.
seen were Triumfetta, Guettarda and Ipomoea tuba.
Fleurya,
Others
One stand of
an annual, 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 be excellent, with the massive encrusting coral being
dominant.
On the seaward flats,
near shore,
most common being Codium and Halimeda;
less frequent,
9 species were noted,
the others were definitely
and usually mixed with the dominant species.
species of coral were seen in this area,
Many
and probably will con-
tinue to increase in numbers of individual colonies,
of them appear to be actively growing. "
the
since most