Puʻu Kukui

Puu Kukui is a mountain peak in Hawaii, the highest of the West Maui Mountains (Mauna Kahalawai). The 5788 ft summit rises above the Puu Kukui Watershed Management Area, an 8661 acre private nature preserve maintained by the Maui Land & Pineapple Company. The peak was formed by a volcano whose caldera eroded into what is now the Iao Valley.

Puu Kukui receives an average of 386.5 in of rain a year, making it one of the wettest spots on Earth and third wettest in the state after Big Bog on Maui and Mount Waialeale on Kauai, Rainwater unable to drain away flows into a bog. The soil is dense, deep, and acidic.

Puu Kukui is home to many endemic plants, insects, and birds, including the greensword (Argyroxiphium grayanum), a distinctive bog variety of ōhia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha var. pseudorugosa) and many lobelioid species. Due to the mountain peak's extreme climate and acidic peat soil, many species, such as the ōhia, are represented as dwarfs. Access to the area is restricted to researchers and conservationists.