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| above: The Hawaiian Islands consists of a 'line' of very heavily erodet corall atolls in the northwest and the larger main islands in the southeast, while the western islands are mostly disappeared into the ocean, the largest island, Hawai'i, is still nascent. The flora of the larger main islands is exceptionally rich in species, the number of endemic species could be percentage higher than in any other place of the world, it is about 1000 species resp. forms. The corall islands in the northwest by contrast are quite poor in species, on the Gardner Pinnacles grows probably only one species, the Ihi (Portulaca lutea). The Johnston atoll does not really belong to the Hawaiian archipelago, but it is claimed also by the USA and lies next to the Hawaiian Islands. But it is not much more than an 'aircraft carrier'. annotation for pronunciation: w - is vocalized as f or w side by side standing vowels are pronounced dissociated e.g.: Hawai'i = Hawa-i-i Ni'ihau = Ni-iha-u ... for more information click on island or name |