Planting the Seeds for Great Story Ideas

It took an act of Congress to create the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG). That’s because in the early 1960s a group of forward-thinking individuals and organizations banded together to encourage the establishment of a tropical botanical garden on U.S. soil. After extensive investigations, feasibility studies, reports and hearings, the legislature enacted Public Law 88-449 in 1964, chartering by Act of Congress the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden as a research and education institution. Subsequently, in 1988, Congress amended the chartering legislation to change the name to the National Tropical Botanical Garden to reflect the addition of The Kampong in Florida to the network of tropical gardens. Considering that only rarely have Federal charters been granted for private nonprofit entities, the history of NTBG, its mission and how it is serving an important national and public need would make an interesting and compelling story.

With nearly 1,800 acres encompassing various tropical ecosystems, extensive living collections of endangered or at-risk species, and precious cultural and historical features, NTBG plays an important role in the complex web of life. NTBG is comprised of a network of gardens, each one with its own unique ecosystem and environmental conditions, allowing for the cultivation and preservation of a broad range of tropical plants. Among the network of gardens and preserves are McBryde Garden, Allerton Garden, and Limahuli Garden and Preserve on the island of Kaua‘i; Kahanu Garden on Maui; The Kampong in Florida; and two preserves on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. A closer look at each one of the gardens, its living collections and individual research and preservation efforts would make a great story.

Did you know that 90 percent of all biodiversity exists in the tropics and that more than 1/3 of all tropical plant species are threatened with extinction? The National Tropical Botanical Garden and its network of gardens and preserves are located in the only tropical climate zones in the United States. While other major gardens can grow tropical plants in greenhouses “under glass,” NTBG’s nearly 1,800 acres of gardens and preserves afford a natural open-air environment in which these species flourish. Thousands of species have been gathered from throughout the tropical world to form an exceptional resource. Among NTBG’s living collections is the largest assemblage of endemic plants from Hawai‘i and the Pacific region, as well as the most comprehensive collection of breadfruit cultivars in the world. The important role NTBG plays in the preservation and perpetuation of tropical plants would be both timely and newsworthy.

NTBG’s Living Collections are a veritable botanical ark of endemic and endangered plant species. The Collections are comprised of thousands and thousands of accessions and taxa (a taxonomic category or group, such as a phylum, order, family, genus, or species), including significant collections of palms; native Hawaiian plants; flowering trees; Rubiaceae; heliconias, ginger and related species; island endemics; and collections of Pacific Island crops such as breadfruit, taro and ‘awa. Many of the rare plants growing in NTBG’s gardens and restoration sites have been produced by the organization’s sophisticated nursery operations. The fully automated, climate-controlled greenhouse facilities at the Conservation and Horticulture Center in the McBryde Garden currently produce over 10,000 plants per year. Many of these are rare plants native to Hawai‘i and the South Pacific region.

Over the past 20 years, roughly two dozen species in Hawai‘i that were thought to be extinct have been rediscovered by NTBG botanists, and about 20 new species that were previously unknown to science have been discovered. Field collectors dangle from jagged peaks and travel the tropical climates of the world to not only discover plants and new plant species but also those in need of protection. Among the tropical regions traveled are the remote islands of Pohnpei, Yap, the Marquesas, and Samoa. Speak with an NTBG scientist about the Garden’s miraculous discoveries and preservation efforts.

Since its founding, the National Tropical Botanical Garden has been a leader in the preservation of plants in Hawai‘i and the greater Pacific area. Each one of its gardens and preserves contains significant natural resources that lend themselves to conservation and restoration programs. These include the native forest and stream ecosystem at Limahuli, the extensive Pandanus forest at Kahanu, the unique dry forest at Ka‘upulehu Preserve, the coastal nesting grounds of the threatened sea turtle at Allerton, and the mangrove-fringed estuary of The Kampong, a refuge for the endangered manatee.

NTBG’s considerable Living Collections, coupled with its Herbarium and Library, provide outstanding resources for research in tropical plant systematics (classification and naming of organisms) and floristics (study of the plants of a geographically or politically defined region).
Combining both systematics and floristics, the Garden is currently collaborating with the Smithsonian Institute and organizations in French Polynesia to produce a comprehensive flora of the remote Marquesas Islands. The multi-year project is not only providing a solid foundation to study and conserve the Marquesan flora but also a guide for future Pacific island research projects.

Did you know that Maui is home to the largest and most extensive collection of breadfruit species and cultivars in the world? It’s true! The National Tropical Botanical Garden’s Kahanu Garden in Hana features more than 120 varieties of breadfruit from 18 Pacific Island groups, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Seychelles, ensuring that traditional varieties and wild species of breadfruit are maintained, evaluated and shared. In fact, the Garden established the Breadfruit Institute in 2002 to preserve breadfruit diversity and traditional knowledge and promote its use for nutrition, income and environmental protection. A major international initiative is currently underway to develop a global solution to the world’s hunger crisis through the preservation of breadfruit diversity and distribution of superior cultivars to tropical countries.

A variety of environmental problems have led to the fast deterioration of precious natural environments, ecosystems, plant life and disappearance of local cultures and languages pertinent to human existence. NTBG is committed to make a difference by providing education programs that use the gardens as outdoor classrooms to disseminate critical information to open up the world of discovery, science, conservation, horticulture, ethnobotany and medicine. Budding botanists, horticulturists, ethnobotanists, environmental journalists and medicinal practitioners expand their knowledge through the Garden’s many internship programs and practical courses. In addition, ethnobotanical studies of indigenous cultural practices and traditional knowledge about their creative use of plants extend beyond the boundaries of the gardens through research expeditions conducted in the islands of the Pacific.

Recognizing the important role members play in the financial support of its mission, the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) has launched a new membership campaign—Our Garden. Our World.—with new membership levels and benefits. As a non-profit organization that was Federally chartered in 1964, NTBG relies on support from the community, private foundations, donors and its members to fulfill its mission to preserve and perpetuate tropical plants for future generations. Members’ dues help support the vital activities that make the difference in saving and understanding tropical plants, which are at the most risk of extinction. Memberships range from $50 to $1,000 and include unlimited admission for garden tours, 10 percent discount at the Garden Shops, members’ publications and invitations to NTBG lectures and events. Supporting Member ($500) and Silver Fellow ($1,000) membership levels offer additional benefits such as special edition Our Garden. Our World. gardening gloves or an Our Garden. Our World. t-shirt.
For more information, please visit OurGardenOurWorld.com.

Collected over many centuries, the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s Loy McCandless Marks Botanical Library is home to more than 12,500 volumes of books with over 500 rare and unique books, 3,500 botanical prints and illustrations, including 600 botanical journals. The collection, some of which dates back to the early 1500s, includes many rare volumes of botanical literature, early herbals and floras. Many of these unusual volumes represent the only record of a specific flora or culture and are used as the primary reference for scientists. The Library is one of the largest and most active botanical and horticultural libraries in Hawai‘i.

The National Tropical Botanical Garden’s Herbarium and Library will soon have a new home in the highly anticipated Botanical Research Center, slated to open in 2008. A “green” building design for the Research Center will feature temperature controlled space for these extensive and rare collections, keeping them in useable condition. The Herbarium is a reference collection of permanently preserved, dried and pressed plant specimens, first established in 1971. One of the Garden’s oldest scientific collections, the Herbarium features more than 55,000 specimens of flowering plants, gymnosperms, ferns and fern allies, fungi, and bryophytes from across the Pacific and a few other select areas. The collection is growing at an astonishing rate of 2,400 new specimens per year. The Loy McCandless Marks Botanical Library complements the Herbarium and the Gardens, with its research collection of over 3,500 botanical illustrations, monographs and drawings, as well as thousands of rare volumes of herbals, botanical history and voyages of discovery.

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Caroline Witherspoon or Danielle Douglass
Becker Communications, Inc. (808) 533-4165