Thank you Dave, It is absolutely stunning. Bravo Zulu! I need to learn this technique, and will see if I can find a gimp forum to learn it in. Your kindness is very greatly appreciated.


This flower grows on Mt. Temehaani on the Island of Raiatea, which is the Island that I call home. I may never have a chance to see this flower again, but many are the times I climbed the mountain at night to await the opening of the buds. They open in the early morning about 3 to 5 o'clock and you can actually hear them pop open. After it takes a while for the petals to curve in the reverse to their normal position that is shown in the photo. The flower is about 2 inches across the open side (from tip to tip on outside petals. It is one of the worlds rarest plants and is only found on our island and on Mt Temehani. Botanists from around the world have been to the island to study the flower and try to transplant it, to no avail. Perhaps it could be cloned, but I have not heard of anyone trying to do this procedure as of yet. The plant itself stands about a meter in height.

There is a legend that goes with this plant, and I thought that I would pass it on to you as I heard it from the tu'puna (the elders) of which I am now one.

Many years ago an Arii Nui was searching for a wife throughout the islands of Polynesia. He had heard of a beautiful woman in the Cook Islands (Raroto'a), and after a meeting with his retenue and stocking a sailing canoe they set sail for the islands to the west and after meeting with the Arii on the islands met the Vahini whom he wanted as his wife and brought her back to Raiatea (Hava'iki Nui) and introduced her to his people who found her not only beautiful and charming but compassionate and very much in favor of the commoners. This Queen ruled with her husband for many years and the bond between them and the people was so strongly forged, that when she died instead of returning her body to the islands of her birth they buried her on our Sacred Mountain, Temehani. Some time after her burial this strange plant sprung from her grave and opend as would a hand, for the people of Raiatea.

Perhaps, if I am lucky and my health will let me I will have another chance to climb the slopes of my beloved mountain to watch a sunrise over the Island of Huahine to the east, and a sunset over the Island of Bora Bora to the west. And in you haven't already guessed it, I have gone totally native. I married into the Arii nui family and have never looked back....

Thanks again for all your kind help!

Ken Jackson
CPO USN Ret.