Remains of a Rainbow: Rare Plants and Animals of Hawai`i
David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton
264 p. color
$65.00
National Geographic Books


Hawai`i is known as one of the most beautiful locations on earth. A chain of islands covered with many of the world’s ecosystems and filled with lovely and incredible plant and animal life. Sadly, Hawai`i is also the “endangered species capital of the world.” Of all plants and animals on the U.S. Endangered Species list, over 25 percent are Hawaiian, and 90 percent of those are flora. It seems that the world is on the verge of losing a priceless heritage of beauty.

To build awareness of this looming catastrophe, environmental and photographic duo David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton have created a stunning visual document titled Remains of a Rainbow.
Middleton says in the introduction, “We did not undertake this work to memorialize plants and animals that are destined to go extinct. Quite the opposite. We have done it to call attention to their plight, with the hope that for most of them, it is not too late.”

Filled with brilliant full-page color portraits of more than 130 species of Hawai`i’s native flora and fauna—including species either new to science or previously thought to be extinct—Remains of a Rainbow is an incredible look at life on one of the richest (yet most threatened) natural environments on earth. Nearly every page is filled with a detailed images from the Islands with occasional short “field stories” about new discoveries, diversity, preservation, and more.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer W.S. Merwin wrote the forward. An afterword is supplied by David S. Wilcove, senior ecologist for Environmental Defense, a nonprofit lobbying organization. A complete illustrated index of the habitat, population, and legal status of the featured species is also provided.

For anyone who wants to truly explore the beauty of the Islands in a way only possible through macro lenses and high-speed film, and for those who wish to have a permanent record of the plant and animal life of the Hawaiian Islands, the Remains of a Rainbow is a must for your library.
Considering the close tie between man and land in Hawaii, Middleton captures the essence of the environmental situation with the following statement: “When I asked a Hawaiian friend about the link between native Hawaiian flora and fauna and the Hawaiian people, he replied, ‘As they go, we go.’”