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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, November 26, 2004

HAWAI'I'S GARDENS
Botanical gardens, like zoos, are live museums

By Winnie Singeo

It's easy to think of a zoo as a living museum, a place to see giraffes, lions, snakes, monkeys — all kinds of wildlife gathered from around the world.

This huge baobab at Foster Garden is an African species. It has several nicknames, including dead-rat tree and upside-down tree.

Advertiser library photo • 2000

Zoos are a learning experience families can have without having to travel thousands of miles to educate children about species they wouldn't otherwise see in the Islands.

A zoo is entertaining and informative.

Just like our botanical gardens.

Yes, gardens.

Instead of animals, our "living museum" is comprised of diverse plants gathered from throughout the world.

The excitement you may feel watching a lion yawn, or a monkey swing from tree to tree, is replaced by a tranquil feeling as you stroll from plant to tree.

In the case of the Honolulu botanical gardens, the plants are from other tropical and subtropical locations, suited for the growing conditions here.

Five treasures

At the edge of urban Honolulu, Foster Garden is one of five botanical gardens that are under the jurisdiction of the city's Department of Parks and Recreation.

The other four gardens are: Lili'uokalani, Wahiawa, Koko Crater, and Ho'omaluhia. Admission is free to all except Foster Garden.

The baobab tree is a good example. This stout giant at Foster Garden is nearly 70 years old — a mere youngster, because the baobab can live up to 2,000 years.

The African tree produces white flowers that hang down from 2-foot-long stems. They open in the evening, to be pollinated by bats and insects. The greenish-yellow, furry fruits that develop resemble rats hanging by their tails from the tree. This is why the baobab often is called the "dead-rat tree."

It is also called by other common names, including monkey-bread tree, in reference to the baboons and other animals that eat the fruits in its native habitat. The seeds inside are covered with a whitish pulp that gives rise to another name: the cream of tartar tree. The pulp is used to make a tart and refreshing drink.

Another popular name for the baobab is the upside-down tree. When the leaves are shed and the branches are bare, it looks like the tree was shoved into the ground top first, with only the trunk and roots in the air.

Plants may not be cute, cuddly or personable like the animals you see at the zoo, but they are every bit as interesting — and important — in the cycle of life.

The tree at Foster Garden was grown as seed from the baobab growing at The Queen's Medical Center.

Check us out. One plus over the zoo: Our plants don't beg. Or bite.

Winnie Singeo is the botanist for the Honolulu botanical gardens. Reach Singeo at HonBotGd@yahoo.com. Foster Botanical Garden is at 50 N. Vineyard Blvd. and is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily except Christmas and New Year's Day. Call 522-7066 for information.