Filipino and Japanese scientists in Hawaii’s flourishing plant industry

(Last in a series of 4 columns on Hawaii)

Read Part III here

“Aloha aina”— love of the land is the environmental cry of Hawaii. Millions of tourists, who flock to this country of 7 islands, see it and feel it. The major industry is tourism that makes use of an enormous amount of flowers, leaves, trees and even fruits for the traditional lei greeting. Vanda orchids, frangipani, braided ti leaves are artfully arranged and worn on the head and shoulders; and when worn on the wrist and ankles, help hula dancing convey the language of prayer, beauty of nature, history of the people who for sometime had no written language.

The 1964 US Congressional charter of the National Tropical Botanic Garden

The US Congress gave a green thumbs-up to Hawaii’s unique biota in 1964, when it chartered the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Of its five facilities, four are in Hawaii. The fifth is the 9-acre Kampung Garden in Florida.

One of these four facilities is the 186 acres Lawai Garden on the south shore of the island of Kauai that also houses the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s headquarters. Its main nursery, Lawai Herbarium, contains 26,000 specimens of tropical plants. The 8,000-volume research library holds an impressive collection of publications on tropical flora and more than 1,000 botanical prints. The focus here is on rare and endangered Hawaiian species and economically important tropical plants.

With more than 200 species, the Lawai Garden has the largest collection of Hawaiian plants in the world. Some 90 percent of the flowering plants in Hawaii are endemic, a far greater percentage than anywhere else on earth.

In the 200 years since contact with the outside world, approximately 6,000 new species have been introduced to the environment, and the native plants are overwhelmed. Lawai Garden has significant collections of palms and erythrinas, and the world’s largest collection of breadfruit.

Allerton Garden

Adjoining Lawai Garden is the oceanfront Allerton Garden. The 100-acre estate was originally planted in the 1870s by Queen Emma. Gardening gave a measure of peace to the queen, who had lost both her husband, King Kamehameha IV, and their only child, Prince Albert. In spite of her stature as an educated, well-traveled woman who had been received by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle and by President Andrew Johnson at the White House in Washington, D.C., the queen worked beside her gardeners in rough clothes with a hat, veil, and gloves.

Emma’s garden was expanded during the 30-year proprietorship of Robert and John Allerton. Today, it is an enchantment of sculptured pools, fountains, and flowers set amid pathways, beside a stream, and along the sea.

The Honolulu Botanical Parks

The Lyon Arboretum was established as a research station by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association in early 1900s, and has been part of the University of Hawai’i since 1953. It is named after Harold Lyon, a plant pathologist hired by Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA). Lyon Arboretum is known for its micro propagation of rare and endangered Hawaiian plants and native forest restoration projects, the Arboretum also features various theme gardens, including the Beatrice H. Krauss Hawaiian Ethnobotanical Garden, the Herb and Spice Garden, the Hawaiian Forest Restoration Section – and of course, the Bromeliad Garden. As of today it is the most important arboretum of Hawaii.

One of the research programs of Lyon Arboretum is the conservation of Hawaii’s rare plants. The establishment of the tissue culture laboratory aids in  fulfilling the Arboretum’s conservation mission through the development of a viable and comprehensive germ plasm “bank,” consisting of critically at-risk native Hawaiian plants and culturally significant crop plants; and serves as a national model which provides information to its peers, researchers, and the conservation community. The laboratory is headed by Dr. Nellie Sugii, assistant researcher of the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, University of Hawaii. Her work focuses primarily on the tissue culture of native Hawaiian plants and tropicals. She is also the curator of native Hawaiian Plants.

To date, the Micropropagation Laboratory has successfully grown approximately 300 of the 1400+ Hawaiian plant “taxa” using micropropagation techniques, of which 136 are federally listed as endangered or threatened. Currently, the lab has a total inventory of 23,954 plants consisting of 232 native plant “taxa” at various stages of propagation in the lab.

In the last two years, over 2,000 plants have been sent out of the micropropagation and greenhouse facility for restoration purposes. Mucuna nigrecens, a relative of the jade vine and among other plants were donated by our consultant, Ray Ong. He had these species conserved for the future generation to see.

The Foster Botanical Garden

The Foster Botanical Garden is the oldest garden in Oahu, Hawaii. We were fortunate to have the Filipino plant propagator of the botanic park, Romel Silva walk us around the 4.6 acres (1.9 ha) leased by Queen Kalama to William Hillebrand, but was later sold to Thomas Foster and Mary E. Foster, who continued to develop the garden as their home site. The Fosters bequeathed the garden to the city of Honolulu, Hawaii with the condition to forever keep and properly maintain the (gardens) as a public and tropical park.

The garden is composed of terraces that contain palms, aroids, heliconias, and gingers. It also has the Economic Garden, which contains herbs, spices, and dyes; the Prehistoric Glen (primitive plants planted in 1965); the Lyon Orchid Garden; and the Hybrid Orchid Display.

Mr. Silva was immensely proud to show his “baby,” the Lodoicea or coco de mer which he personally fertilized. It was like a conjoined coconut with a cleavage in the middle. He even showed us a rare bluish-purple bromeliad called King David Kalakaua. Mr. Randy Tajima, the orchid tissue culture specialist of the Orchid Garden gifted Ray Ong a hybrid orchid fusing Vanda Sanderana Alba and Neoffinetia Falcata. 

The indefatigable hybridizer, Dr. Bernardino Cagauan Jr.

Dr. Bernie Cagauan Jr. is a soil scientist once connected with the University of Hawaii as a research associate. His half-kilometer long private farm is located at Waianae (through the Leeward Oahu bus destination), an area rich in the collection of orchids, ferns and other plants, which houses a simple tissue culture laboratory containing only basic equipment. Over 40 years, Dr. Cagauan designed his simplified procedure on orchid culture and successfully produced 180 hybrids, many of which he named after his wife and children: Elizabeth Pfund Russell “Mililani,” Cristina Cagauan “Serene,” Cristina Cagauan “Dandansoy,” Potinara Dianne Meyer “Red Crown,” Den. Reina del Cielo “Blue Comet,” Cristina Cagauan “Nancy” and many more. He used to export these plants to South America and Florida.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore, tissue culture expert breeding Dendrobiums and Anthuriums

Dr. Teresita Amore works at the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources of the University of Hawaii, Manoa. For almost 30 years, she worked on the dendrobium and anthurium breeding programs. She started as a graduate research assistant in 1985 while pursuing her M.S. in Horticulture, and by 1991 received her Ph.D. in Horticulture from the Univ. of Hawaii, specializing in dendrobium cytogenetics and breeding. She worked subsequently as a research associate in the flower-breeding program with cytogenetics engineer, Dr. Kamemoto and genetic engineer, Dr. Kuehnle. Her numerous research and extension publication includes co-authorship of the book “Breeding Dendrobium Orchids in Hawaii.”

In overseeing the tissue culture of new anthurium hybrids, she pointed out that the poster of 35 photographed varieties of anthuriums at her office has been the result of consulting florists, interior decorators and landscapers, being the end users, not the growers. She has numerous research and extension publications, including co-authorship on the book “Breeding Dendrobium Orchids in Hawaii.”

Blue Hawaii, the rainbow country - mecca of nature lovers

The Hawaiian Islands rise as green beacons of life in the middle of the big blue Pacific Ocean. From the very beginning, this single factor of isolation has protected its local culture and natural environment. Today the Hawaiians’ haunting chants tell the stories of their ancient kingdom where their royal kings and queens encouraged them to develop and conserve their agriculture, horticulture, and fisheries that helped them live sustainably. They are fortunate that as the 50th state of America the US Congress continues to protect both the natural and cultural heritage of the islands. According to Ray Ong each year that he visits his university colleagues in Honolulu, he always sees a rainbow across the sky. Indeed a double rainbow greeted us at sunset during our visit to Dr. Bernie Cagauan’s farm in Waianae near the Kaena Point State Park.