A LESSON IN NATIVE FLORA
Growth, and not just that of endangered plants, is in the air of the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s headquarters on Kauai’s South Shore. Home to the elegantly landscaped Allerton Garden and the profusely diverse McBryde Garden, the garden is steadily expanding its outreach to visitors while continuing the research chartered by Congress 50 years ago.
In January, for example, the garden invited visitors to view botanical art from its prestigious rarebook collection, housed in the environmentally friendly, 20,000-square-foot research center built in 2008.
“For people in general, botany is a little esoteric, but they love art and architecture, so we started this program where they can see the art and this building, and then when they come in, we can also talk to them about conservation,” says director Chipper Wichman.
In August, the garden opened a new interpretive trail at the McBryde Garden, where the several thousand species of flora include the world’s largest collection of native Hawaiian plants, many of which are endangered. The new 800-foot, accessible Biodiversity Trail traces the evolution of plant life over 450 million years, starting with mosses and passing through ferns, cycads and palms into the modern day, with a display on environmental threats. Perhaps even more important additions: a real restroom and some food service. “If you want people to learn, you have to meet their creature comforts,” Wichman notes.
Bay Area patrons — in-
“We need advocates to help us conserve this special place and these special plants.”
cluding Merrill Magowan of Hillsborough and the late Bill Lane of Sunset magazine fame and his wife, Jean, of Portola Valley, for whom the garden’s visitor center is named — have been key backers of the garden’s mission over the years, Wich-
Chipper Wichman, garden director
man says. The nearby Poipu resorts also provide fertile ground for cultivating sup- port.
“There’s this great audience literally on our doorstep, and we’re trying to figure out how to invite them in and make this experience wonderful, and turn them from being a visitor into an advocate,” Wichman says. “We need advocates to help us conserve this special place and these special plants.”