Kalapana Anthurium

Kalapana was a beautiful black sand beach in Hawaii that was known for its pounding surf and huge coconut trees. I say “was” because it no longer exists. Kalapana was consumed by fiery lava after the Kilauea volcano began erupting back in the eighties.

Kalapana Anthurium

Kalapana Anthurium

I suspect Kalapana obake anthurium flowers were named after this beach that was consumed by fire. Perhaps because they come in a fiery shade of red that might symbolize lava and they are tinged with green that might symbolize the coconut trees that used to grace this amazing beach that only exists in our memories and photos.

The Kalapana anthurium plant is a great plant to grow because it tends to be resistant to the blight, which is the bane of many varieties of anthuriums. And it also is resistant to anthracnose, which tends to destroy flowers.

flowing rock by paul (dex), on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License by  paul (dex)

And Kalapana is slowly being reborn as the waves tirelessly pulverize the new lava flow into ebony sand and gracious people replant tiny coconut seedlings one by one.