Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
A downhill walk through Eden to the Pacific
Hawaii Tropical Botanical GardenA downhill walk through Eden to the Pacific
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Just before completing our clockwise loop of the Big Island, we stopped for a wet afternoon visit at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden on Onomea Bay. This is a fantastic place, the best botanical garden we've ever been to in a state where the windward side on nearly every island looks like a Botanical Garden that lost its signage. But even in such a lush island, this area just north of Hilo is exceptional: Over 140 inches of rain drench its 37 sea-level acres each year. Daily high temperatures average 80 degrees and lows 65 degrees with little seasonal variation. Here's a typical picture of the lush pathways in this well-fernished spot:
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About 85,000 visitors descend each year from the park entrance to the rugged Onomea Bay shoreline on a wooden platform several hundred yards long. (This is the only tropical garden in the country on an ocean). Golf carts carry the mobility-challenged to and from the lower levels down a ravine carved by Kahali Stream (now made dry by a 1949 landslide):
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The platform (about the width of a golf cart) literally hovers over a sea of green and delivers visitors to gently descending and winding paths that terminate on the rough shores of Onomea Bay. Paths with such names as "Giant Fern Circle" and "Monkeypod Vista" lure walkers carrying umbrellas provided by the Garden.
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Visitors gradually wend their way through spectacular plants, past breathtaking waterfalls, and find themselves on the lava sea shore. There's a lot of color here, even on a wet day in mid-January. One of the first sights is of this Pink Quill, a member of the pineapple family:
A bit of trivia: Hilo, the Big Island's largest city and only nine miles to the south, is the wettest city in the United States. The Garden sits between the rugged Onomea Bay and a spectacular road called the Four-Mile Scenic Route.
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Roses are red and violets are purple, but the Pink Quill is both. It's an "air plant" in that it grows on other plants, not in soil. These "epiphytes" are supported by other plants, but don't feed on them like parasites. It's one of over 2000 species represented here from tropical areas throughout the world.
The garden started with a visit to the area by San Franciscans Dan and Pauline Lutkenhouse who eventually bought the land (in two parcels), started the planting, and eventually converted it to a 501(c)(3) Scientific and Educational non-profit organization. Most of the work was done by hand (try carving out trails through lava that way!)
But even without the carefully maintained garden, this area would be physically stunning. The gentle Onomea Stream descends rapidly through this three-tier waterfall which was not even discovered by the Lutkenhouses until several years after they started developing the lower garden:
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After exiting the waterfall, the Onomea Stream flows to the rugged lava-crusted Onomea Bay. The bay is one of the few places on the Big Island where the a'ama crabs and opihi mollusks are not hunted:
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Creek and Ocean provide serious water audio to the visually stunning garden. (See more photos of Boulder Creek and waterfall along with the shoreline of Onomea Bay by clicking here.) The bridges which cross these waterscapes are made from recycled wood and metal from the mill that once refined sugar here.
Before the Lutkenhouses bought all the property between the Bay and the street (appropriately named the "Four Mile Scenic Drive"), it was an abandoned passion fruit farm. Before that is was the site of the Onomea Sugar Mill and even before that an early Hawaiian fishing village called Kahali'i . Fortunate for us, these early Hawaiians terraced the land to grow their sugar and taro -- thus stopping the erosion that would have eventually washed this site into the sea. When the Lutkenhouses bought the first 17 acres, they found that in the nearly 100 years that the area lay unused it had become an illegal junkyard including 35 abandoned cars.
Many gardens are color-challenged in January, but not this one. Gingers abound such as these from Indonesia:
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And some of the more than 80 species of heliconias, a great favorite of hummingbirds. The heliconia below is most likely a Fake Bird of Paradise:
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The Garden's heliconia collection is world-renowned with some as high as 20'. May through August are prime heliconia viewing time. But if you'd like to see more January pictures of the gingers and heliconias, click here.
Even the plants that are not blooming provide color such as this Stromanthe Sanguinea from Brazil (left) and Colorful Ti plant (right):
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But even the "only" green plants can have spectacular leaves such as the ctenanthe (Phrynium) plant from Brazil:
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For lots more pictures of ferns, big leaved plants and other greenery, click here:
But back to the color. What tropical gardens would not have a plethora of orchids such as these:
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The world (but not this garden) contains over 25,000 species of orchids plus another 150,000 registered hybrids. For another fifty or so orchid photos, click here.
When we visited, the Lily Lake (pond) was not at its most colorful in the January rain. However, this spot claims a view with more species visible (110) than any other spot on the planet:
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The lake was dug by hand and lined with 3 inches of concrete to hold the water above the porous lava rock that sits just under the thin veneer of soil. Some of the water lilies are from the Victoria River in Africa. The orange impressionistic dabs are Koi (some of them up to 30" long.)
The garden has whole rows of various plants such as orchards and heliconias. One such row is called "Bromeliad Hill."
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Bromeliads include such diverse (and well known) plants as pineapples and Spanish Moss. The garden features more than 80 of the 400 Bromeliad species, many living on a fallen 100-year-old Banyan tree. (Bromeliads are air plants--epiphytes--and rely on rainwater and dirt that collects in the crown of their plants for nourishment.) For more Bromeliad photos, click here.
While the Garden is a natural wonder, several man-made accents appear: Four unnamed tombs rise low at Turtle Point on the Bay without any explanation:
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A carving of the Hawaiian war god, Ku, greets visitors as they travel down Oceanfront Trail to the shoreline above the lava tube of Onomea Bay:
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Sculptor William "Rocky" Vargas made this carving in 1998 from a 60-year-old monkey pod taken from the Garden. The native Hawaiians abandoned Ku and the rest of their gods in the early 1800s after noticing that these gods' brutal justice (including human sacrifice) did not apply to the Caucasians that kept wandering upon the islands' shores.
Another resting place is for the birds, specifically eight macaws who reside in a state-of-the-art 20' by 40' solar powered birdhouse. (Do they have video games?) The interior features plants similar to the denizens' South American habitat so they don't get homesick. The largest birds in the parrot family, macaws can live over 100 years (but 65 years is more typical for the larger birds); a breeding program for this generally endangered species is planned to help the birds pass the time. Unlike humans, macaws bond for life and the cage features matching pairs of scarlet, blue and gold, and rainbow mates. (Do we need to talk about bees, too?)
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Haven't had enough flowers and plants? Click here to see some other spectacular plants that didn't make it to this page.
Are you an Horticulturist looking for a challenge? Click here for a naming contest. (If truth be told, I can't name these even though the garden labeled many -- but not all -- of its plants.)
Here's a list of the links to the photo pages in case you missed (or avoided) some on the way down.
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