The fragrance
Kaʻala is read as the fragrance, from ala, scent. Another reading takes ala as a kind of rough stone.
At 4,025 feet it is the summit of the Waiʻanae range and the highest ground on the island.
A bog on top
The flat summit holds a montane bog — stunted ʻōhiʻa, sedges and mosses growing in permanently saturated ground, with plants found nowhere else. It is a Natural Area Reserve, and the boardwalk across it exists to keep feet off the peat.
A US Air Force radar station occupies part of the summit, which is why there is a paved road to the top of it.