Foster Botanical Garden, measuring , is one of five public

botanical gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

. It is located at 50 North Vineyard Boulevard,

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, near

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

at the intersection of Nu'uanu Avenue and Vineyard Boulevard. Foster is in a highly urban area with strip malls, schools, and Buddhist, Shinto, and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

religious facilities nearby. The Garden is the oldest botanical garden in Hawaii, and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

History

In 1853, Queen

Kalama Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili (1817 – September 20, 1870) was a Queen consort of the Kingdom of Hawaii alongside her husband, Kauikeaouli, who reigned as King Kamehameha III. Her second name Hakaleleponi is Hazzelelponi in Hawaiian. Ear ...

leased of land to

William Hillebrand Wilhelm or William Hillebrand (November 13, 1821 – July 13, 1886) was a German physician. He practiced medicine in several different countries, including for over 20 years in the Hawaiian islands. In 1850, Hillebrand lived at what is now Foste ...

, a German physician and botanist who built his home and planted trees on the site. During his stay, he introduced a number of plants to Hawaii, as well as deer and mynah birds. Many of the large trees growing today on the Upper Terrace were Hillebrand's plantings. After 20 years Hillebrand returned to Germany, where he published ''Flora of the Hawaiian Islands'' in 1888. In 1884 the property was sold to Thomas R. Foster and his wife Mary E. Foster (née Robinson), who continued to develop the garden as their homesite. Upon her death in 1930, Mary Foster bequeathed the land and her home to the

City and County of Honolulu Honolulu County (officially known as the City and County of Honolulu, formerly Oahu County) is a consolidated city–county in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The city–county includes both the city of Honolulu (the state's capital and largest city ...

, with the provision that the city ''accept and forever keep and properly maintain the (gardens) as a public and tropical park to be known and called Foster Park''. At the time, the gardens were roughly . Dr. Harold Lyon, the first director of Foster Garden, introduced thousands of new plants and trees to Hawaii, and started its famous orchid collection. Paul Weissich, director from 1957 to 1989, expanded Foster Garden to of native plants, and developed four additional sites on

Island to create the

Honolulu Botanical Gardens The Honolulu Botanical Gardens are botanical gardens located in Honolulu County, Oahu, Hawaii, and operated under the county's auspices. The gardens are open daily except for Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The Gardens' stated mission is to plan, ...

system. Taken as a whole, these five gardens feature rare species from tropical environments ranging from desert to rainforest, comprising the largest and most diverse tropical plant collection in the United States. The Garden is the inspiration for a line in

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

's 1970 folk song "

Big Yellow Taxi "Big Yellow Taxi" is a song written, composed, and originally recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970, and originally released on her album '' Ladies of the Canyon''. It was a hit in her native Canada (No. 14) as well as Aust ...

": ''"Took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum / Then charge people a dollar and a half just to see 'em."''.

Foster Botanical Garden today

Today the garden consists of the Upper Terrace (the oldest part of the garden); Middle Terraces (

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

aroid The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe (or leaf-like bract). Also ...

heliconia ''Heliconia'', derived from the Greek word (), is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the ca 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the we ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

s); Economic Garden (

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices a ...

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...

poison Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...

s); Prehistoric Glen (primitive plants planted in 1965); Lyon Orchid Garden; and Hybrid Orchid Display. It also contains a number of exceptional trees, including a

Sacred Fig ''Ficus religiosa'' or sacred fig is a species of fig native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is also known as the bodhi tree, pippala tree, peepul tree, peepal tree, pipal tree, ...

which is a clone descendant of the Bodhi tree that

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

sat under for inspiration, a sapling of which was gifted to Mary Foster by

Anagarika Dharmapala Anagārika Dharmapāla (Pali: ''Anagārika'', ; Sinhala: Anagārika, lit., si, අනගාරික ධර්මපාල; 17 September 1864 – 29 April 1933) was a Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist and a writer. Anagarika Dharmapāla is not ...

in 1913. All told, it contains 25 of about 100 Oahu trees designated as exceptional. The garden also contains several memorials and sculptures: * A small replica of the

Daibutsu or 'giant Buddha' is the Japanese language, Japanese term, often used informally, for large Japanese sculpture, statues of List of Buddhas, Buddha. The oldest is that at Asuka-dera (609) and the best-known is that at Tōdai-ji in Nara, Nara, Nar ...

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

commemorates 100 years of Japanese immigration to Hawaii * A memorial stone on the site of the first Japanese language school on

, where an anti-aircraft shell exploded into an auditorium full of children during the Japanese

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

* The 1977 abstract ceramic sculpture 'Sandwich Isle' by artist Bob Flint * The 1974 sculpture ''Tree'' by Charles W. Watson

Images

Image:Foster Botanical Garden (Daibutsu) - Honolulu, HI.JPG,

commemorating Japanese immigration Image:Foster Botanical Garden (orchid display) - Honolulu, HI.JPG, Orchid display Image:FosterGarden-Encephalartos-horridus.JPG, ''

Encephalartos horridus ''Encephalartos horridus'', the Eastern Cape blue cycad, is a small, low-growing cycad up to high and wide. It is a native of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, and found in arid shrublands, most commonly on ridges and slopes with shallow so ...

'' in prehistoric glen Image:FosterGarden-birdsnestfern.JPG, Bird's nest fern Image:Banyan tree Foster Botanical Gardens.jpg, A

banyan tree A banyan, also spelled "banian", is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adventitious prop roots, allowing the tree to spread outwards indefinitely. This distinguishes banyans from other trees with a strangler habit that begin life as a ...

File:'Ohai-ali'i plant in bloom.jpg, 'Ohai-ali'i plant in bloom. (10/2012) File:Sculpture near the Conservatory.jpg, Sculpture near the conservatory. (10/2012) File:Butterfly Garden - plants attract butterflies.jpg, Butterfly garden near the conservatory. (10/2012) File:Map - Foster Botanical Garden.jpg, Map of the Foster Botanical Garden. (10/2012)

History

Foster Botanical Garden today

Images

Further reading

See also