urbpan | Ana Te Pahu

This will be a reader-participations Easter Island post, as there are a couple plants to identify. One I know, but won't give away, and one I don't.

There are caves all over Easter Island, due to the lava tubes that formed when the volcanic rock of the island was laid down. In this one, Ana Te Pahu, the entrance is vertical--an open pit leads to long subterranean tunnels. We went into it, but didn't spelunk. The shelter of the walls of the pit allows cultivated plants to grow (like the banana tree in the above picture, emerging next to my father, who decided not to risk the precarious descent into the cave.)

Here's one of those cultivated plants. The leaves look similar to maize, but the fruit is very different.

Here's the other. These pretty flowers need a hummingbird to pollenate them. So far no one has introduced them, so these will have to be replanted from purchased seeds.