Hawaiian Rain Forest | Nature of America

Rainfall is abundant in a Hawaiian rain forest, a verdant world dotted with ʻōhiʻa lehua blossoms and the flowers of the kanawao, ʻōhā, and other shrubs. Typically, the leaves and branches of mature ʻōhiʻa lehua trees make up the forest canopy. Saplings, shrubs, and tree ferns dominate the understory, while a great variety of smaller ferns, herbs, and mosses carpet the forest floor.

The lush vegetation offers protection and sustenance for wildlife, including several bird species, numerous insects. and the islands’ only native terrestrial mammal — the ʻōpeʻapeʻa, or Hawaiian hoary bat. Because of Hawaiʻis remote location, its rain forest plants and animals were safe from competition and predation by introduced species until relatively recent times; today, they are among the most vulnerable biological communities on Earth.

The stamp pane features a rain forest on the island of Hawaiʻi, In the painting, a tiny happyface spider clings to a leaf in the foreground as honeycreepers and other birds seek nectar, insects, and berries amid the dense foliage.