Koa wilt it starts to produce microconidia, eventually clogging the xylem. Once the Koa tree dies, the fungus invades all tissues and, upon reaching the dead plant surface, sporulates profusely producing macroconidia and chlamydospores. The fungus can survive saprophytically in the soil, as either mycelium or as any of its three spore types mentioned. The chlamydospores, as the resting spores, survive the longest in the soils, usually under cold conditions. Koa trees occupy dry to mesic areas on the islands of Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi in elevations of 80 to 8,000 feet with 0 to 100 inches of rain.
Koa Kannon the Soto school. General Iwane Matsui who commanded the Shanghai Expeditionary Force at the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War built the Koa Kannon statue after retiring from the service in 1940 to honor the officers and men of both China and Japan who fell in battle in the name of consecrating equally both friend and enemy. The statue was made using clay from battlefields, including from the vicinity of Nanjing where Matsui served. On 24 February 1940 the consecration ceremony was performed in the presence of Tessui Oshima, a high-ranking Jodo Buddhist monk from Zojo-ji, and other distinguished figures.