Relation To Other Species
The relationships of koa are not clear. Among other Pacific Islands of volcanic (non-continental) origin, only Vanuatu has native Acacia species. A. heterophylla, from distant Réunion, is very similar and has been suggested to be the closest relative of koa, but this is far from certain.
A closely related species, koaiʻa or koaiʻe (A. koaia), is found in dry areas. It is most easily distinguished by having smaller seeds that are arranged end-to-end in the pod, rather than side-by-side. The phyllodes are also usually straighter, though this character is variable in both species. The wood is denser, harder, and more finely grained than koa wood. Koaiʻa has been much more heavily impacted by cattle and is now rare, but can be seen on ranch land in North Kohala.
Read more about this topic: Acacia Koa
Famous quotes containing the words relation to, relation and/or species:
“Much poetry seems to be aware of its situation in time and of its relation to the metronome, the clock, and the calendar. ... The season or month is there to be felt; the day is there to be seized. Poems beginning “When” are much more numerous than those beginning “Where” of “If.” As the meter is running, the recurrent message tapped out by the passing of measured time is mortality.”
—William Harmon (b. 1938)
“Concord is just as idiotic as ever in relation to the spirits and their knockings. Most people here believe in a spiritual world ... in spirits which the very bullfrogs in our meadows would blackball. Their evil genius is seeing how low it can degrade them. The hooting of owls, the croaking of frogs, is celestial wisdom in comparison.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Let us guard against saying that death is opposed to life. The living is merely a species of the dead, and a very rare species.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)