Posted on: Friday, October 15, 2004

HAWAI'I'S GARDENS
Lyon Arboretum too valuable to be closed

By Heidi Bornhorst

The Lyon Arboretum, one of the most valuable research and teaching assets at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, was closed to the public last month.

It was shut down for safety reasons, according to university officials; a lack of money for repairs and maintenance had led to unsafe conditions on the property. It was announced last week that some volunteers and helpers are being allowed back in to assist researchers and a task force has been appointed to consider the garden's future.

We cannot allow this facility to remain closed.

Harold Lyon, the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association, early foresters and others here had the foresight to secure the 194-acre parcel at 3860 Manoa Road for a teaching and research garden. It is now home to many venerable and valuable (if not priceless) trees and plants.

Botanical gardens are repositories for plants and trees that may survive nowhere else. They are a sign of civilization and of faith in the future. Yet here in Hawai'i, these facilities are quietly ignored and chronically under-funded. Semi-secret jewels in our urban environment, they provide enjoyment, sustenance and learning for many. But lately, they have become political pawns of state and county governments.

These same governments tell us we need ecotourism, green industries and diversified agriculture to sustain our economy and our lifestyle. A green and vibrant environment is one reason why many visitors com here. But too many hiking ecotourists overcrowd the wild places, trample the trails (and often the plants alongside them) and sometimes even use the areas unsafely. Meanwhile, botanical gardens remain unknown to many visitors and receive no assistance from the tourist industry or its marketing representatives. If more visitors knew about these gardens, they could be popular venues with environmentally sensitive tourists, gardening enthusiasts and photography buffs.

Botanical gardens are research and record-keeping facilities — living plant libraries. The records are like plant genealogies, recording when and where the plants were originally collected, how they have been nurtured, where they are planted, what has been learned about them. Figuring out how to grow and culture rare and unusual plant species — as well as plants that have use in the community — is another function of a botanical garden.

Hawai'i, with its tropical climate, diverse ecotypes and microclimates, its political stability and location as a crossroads is an ideal place to perpetuate, nurture and study the plants of the world's tropical regions. We also have an amazing native Hawaiian flora that has not yet been fully studied in the realms of horticulture (the science of cultivating plants), tissue culture (the science of keeping tissue alive in a culture medium — a way of preserving endangered plants) and other plant sciences. Many Hawaii species are extinct in the wild or are down to just a handful of vulnerable plants.

The tissue culture lab at Lyon Arboretum, run by Nellie Sugii and her corps of trained volunteers, is home to numerous rare and valuable plants growing in a clean, sterile environment to preserve their integrity. Sugii learns about and documents new horticulture methods and techniques.

Lyon Arboretum is celebrating 30 years of garden education programs, a department led by Jill Laughlin. The late educational and volunteer program specialist, botanist Ranjit Cooray, and beloved ethnobotanist Beatrice Krauss left a legacy of knowledge and teaching at the arboretum. These classes are being taught away from the arboretum property for now.

Bob Hirano gave us many new gingers during his tenure at Lyon. Ray Barker continues to cultivate and care for rare palms, marantas, gingers, heliconias, trees and native Hawaiian plants.

The nursery of rare and vulnerable seedlings, managed by Liz Huppman and Carol Nakamura, is sustained daily by their careful ministrations. Huppman and many students (as well as community and visiting interns and volunteers) developed a new teaching garden of Hawaiian plants, with graveled trails and lush Manoa views.

Record-keeping, the scientific herbarium, the library and accesses of all the plants are the provenance of botanist Karen Shigematsu. This is vital for the perpetuation of plant knowledge.

Alvin Yoshinaga of the Center for Conservation Research and Training and Seed Conservation Laboratory at Lyon researches and studies how long seeds of tropical and natives can be stored in a germ-plasm repository. This, coupled with other Lyon Arboretum activities, is a multipronged way to ensure the perpetuity of rare and endangered plants. These are just a few of the gifts of the Lyon Arboretum.

Our tree-loving, gardening and botany-studying kupuna had the foresight to claim some diverse environmental habitats for our botanical gardens. These gardens belong to us, the people. Write Peter Englert, UH-Manoa provost, and let him know permanent closure is not an option.