Kohuhu

 

Pittosporum tenuifolium

I noticed a sweet smell as I walked past a neighbor's privacy screen of mostly red trumpet vine yesterday morning. A few of its large flowers were in bloom, so I sniffed some but didn't really notice much of a scent. 

It happened again this morning. Same sweet smell. But this time I noticed another plant intertwined with the trumpet vine, and it had very small maroon flowers. A sniff of these new flowers didn't yield as much scent as yesterday, but enough to confirm that it was the plant of interest. By the time I returned from my walk about 90 minutes later, the scent was completely absent.

I ran a phone snap of these mystery flowers through Plant Net and came up with its name, kohuhu (Pittosporum tenuifolium), a New Zealand native. I also set it up for a macro shot (posted above) with the Nikon D800E. The plant emits its scent at night, which is why its fragrance lingered in the early morning but dissipated later on.

When I cut a piece to bring home to photograph I had to unwrap it from all the tendrils twined around its branches. I thought the plant itself was a vine, but it turns out the tendrils belonged to the red trumpet vine which is using the kohuhu as a brace for its own climbing.

Kohuhu Branch With Flowers

These Adirondack chairs get around, which appears to be the point. Part of the Golden Mile Project, 100 of them were set out to be used. Unfortunately, this chair's seat has been vandalized, with a slat broken out of it (and possibly burned, as there was fire debris nearby).

Ocean Beach Breakwater Near Noriega Street

Beach Ravens
(They were gathered beak-to-beak before they noticed me and broke up their little plot, like a raven version of a Gary Larson moment.)

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