A Hortulan Note

Have you ever been completely overcome by the sheer impressiveness of a botanical garden? I have been, and was again recently, this time at Honolulu’s Foster Botanical Garden. This small garden is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has especially exceptional trees. The garden is home to 24 of Oahu’s officially designated Exceptional Trees.

With five distinct gardens, the Honolulu Botanical Gardens are a relaxing place to see beautiful plants, some of them quite rare, away from the crowds of Waikiki. The lawns at the Foster Botanical Garden have some coarse-bladed species, Axonopus compressus, Axonopus affinus, and Paspalum conjugatum (or Sourgrass) among others.

If you were to see these grasses under the exceptional trees, and I hope you will on your next visit to Honolulu, you may be overcome too.

Arizona? No, this is the botanical garden at Koko Crater. The hot and dry conditions at Koko Crater on the eastern end of Oahu are an ideal site for the dryland collections of the Honolulu Botanical Gardens.