A kick in the pants is always a big help. Last week we had some wonderful Couchsurfing guests stay with us for a few days. They came back one evening at dinnertime, brimming with excitement from their day's outing. They couldn't stop talking about the trees- the very big trees they'd seen at a nearby botanical garden.
Ah, a garden I thought. What a cool way to see the city, and get in some great flower photos as well. So one afternoon I took a bus into downtown Honolulu, on a mission to check out the Foster Botanical Garden for myself.
Our Couchsurfing friends were right- there were some massive trees. Jaw-dropping trees.
But a disappointing undersupply of flowers too. Somehow I pictured there'd be a dense profusion of flowers to photograph, ala my beloved Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Sadly, even the orchid garden was mostly leaves with nary a blossom in sight. Was this the wrong time of year for flowers? Or just the wrong garden?
I shook my head a little and remembered then- I had really come for the trees. So I changed out my macro lens for a wide-angle, and turned around to admire the lovely ones all around me.
Foster Botanical Garden was once the home of a German doctor, William Hillebrand, who happened also to be a remarkable amateur botanist. Though the big old Victorian home he built was torn down long ago, the enormous trees he planted in his yard are still there.
The garden has tropical trees from all over the world, some quite rare and endangered. Certain trees are given "exceptional" status here- honored for their cultural significance to Hawaiian history or because of their rarity, and protected by County laws. The Exceptional trees in this garden make up a quarter of all such trees on Oahu.
Hillebrand was fascinated by the local trees most of all. So much so that when he returned to Germany he published an entire treatise on Hawaiian flora. So it's not that surprising that he included several important native Hawaiian trees in his garden.
The leaves of the breadfruit tree. The fruit can be cooked green or ripened, and was an essential staple in the diet of the ancient Hawaiians:
Many trees on the property hail from Central America and Southeast Asia as well. The kapoks in particular reminded me of the gorgeous trees we had just seen in Guatemala.
A massive quipo tree, and its canopy:
My favorite, the cannonball tree- safest to admire from afar:
A palm of some sort. Proof I didn't read EVERY placard in the garden:
Kariya roots:
Buddha and the baobab:
A bo tree, the type Buddha was reputed to sit under when he received enlightenment:
Hiroshima, Japan is a sister city to Honolulu. This monument was given by the people of Hiroshima to the Hawaiians, in that spirit of camaraderie:
Plumeria tree and blossoms:
2 comments:
Glad to see you actually skipped one placard! :)
Hawaii looks heavenly!
Some recognition … we also saw the cannonball tree in Singapore ... and didn’t know what it was! Now we know! ;-)
There was also a Kariya tree, at least I think it was … I’ll send you some pictures we made.
The palm from which you skipped the placard is indeed a Sagopalm, also known as Cycas.
Beautiful trees you saw!!
Love, Jacqy
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