The ie ie (Freycinetia arborea) is a woody climber plant, that is endemic to the Pacific Islands. I first met this plant a few weeks ago, when I hiked the Aiea Trail in the Koolau Mountains to take some photos of the Hawaiian rainforests. This nice looking plant has large showy inflorescences. After flowering, female plants produce fruiting spadices with numerous red berries. The flowers and fruit of the ie ie were the favorite food of the Hawaiian Crow (Corvus hawaiiensis), which is currently extinct in the wild. They were also the favored food of the Ou (Psittirostra psittacea), an extinct Hawaiian Honecreeper. The ou had a specialized bill for extracting and eating the fruits whole. These birds were important for the plant pollination and seed dispersal in the past. Although the ie ie lost its original pollinators, it survives, because an introduced bird, namely the Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus) can now serve the role of pollination. White-eyes may also disperse the seeds of the ie ie by eating the fruit and spreading it over a wide area. This is one of the very rare occasions, when an invasive species can facilitate a native species.

Source:

Cox, P. A. (1983). Extinction of the Hawaiian avifauna resulted in a change of pollinators for the ieie, Freycinetia arborea. Oikos. 41: 195-199.

I photographed this ie ie flower in the Koolau Mountain Range on Oahu, Hawaii.

Gear: Canon EOS 7D, Canon 17-40mm F/4 L lens, Tiffen Polarizer, handheld