Puu Kukui is a mountain peak in Hawaii. It is the highest peak of Mauna Kahalawai (the West Maui Mountains). The summit rises above the Puu Kukui Watershed Management Area, an private nature preserve maintained by the Maui Land & Pineapple Company. The peak was formed by a volcano whose caldera eroded into what is now the Iao Valley.

Puu Kukui is one of the wettest spots on Earth and the third wettest in the state after Big Bog, Maui and Mount Waialeale, receiving an average of of rain a year. Rainwater unable to drain away flows into a bog. The soil is dense, deep, and acidic.

Puʻu Kukui

Puu Kukui is home to many endemic plants, insects, and birds, including the greensword (Argyroxiphium grayanum), a distinctive bog variety of ōhia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha var. pseudorugosa) and many lobelioid species. Due to the mountain peak's extreme climate and peat soil, many species, such as the ōhia, are represented as dwarfs. Access to the area is restricted to researchers and conservationists.

Puʻu Kukui

See also

List of mountain peaks of the United States

Big Bog, Maui

Mount Waialeale

List of volcanoes of the United States

List of mountain peaks of Hawaii

List of Ultras of Oceania

List of Ultras of the United States

Hawaii hotspot

Evolution of Hawaiian volcanoes

Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain

References

External links

Volcanoes of Maui Nui

Polygenetic shield volcanoes

Hotspot volcanoes

Wetlands of Hawaii

Landforms of Maui

Nature reserves in Hawaii

Protected areas of Maui

Puʻu Kukui