Six days a week, at 1 p.m., the public may show up at the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook to learn about this unique 15-acre landscape, with stands of native plants, many of them rare or endangered.
Six days a week, at 1 p.m., the public may show up at the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook to learn about this unique 15-acre landscape, with stands of native plants, many of them rare or endangered.
Since last year, garden visitors have been given this guided native plant walk of the area, which reflects the biogeographical zones of a typical Kona ahupuaa — coastal, dry forest, agricultural and upland forest. The free one-hour tour offers a glimpse of West Hawaii farms and forests in the time before foreign contact. Tour highlights include more than 200 species of plants, as well as intact remnants of prehistoric agricultural field walls and other gardening features.
This service has been made possible with funding from the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the county Department of Research and Development. The garden has again received from these agencies a grant, totaling $14,000, which will also help pay for the walk’s marketing costs through the year’s end, said garden manager Peter Van Dyke.
Van Dyke expressed gratitude for the ongoing support of HTA and the county for the garden, which supports Hawaiian cultural traditions of land use and plants, as well as conserves plant resources. He said the guided walk has helped make the garden more accessible to people, particularly those who want more interaction and insight. The tour has helped “visitors come to see that the cultural landscape of Kona is as inspiring and magnificent as the natural landscape Hawaii Island is already famous for,” he added.
The garden also offers a self-guided tour option, as there are panels along the trails and many plants are labeled. Most of the paths are easy for walking, though the trail to the upland forest area is steep. While the tours are free, general admission to the garden costs $7 for adults; $5 for kamaaina and military; $4 to $6 for seniors; and children 12 and younger visit for free.
While the garden has lots of volunteers, Van Dyke said not everyone is willing to lead the guided plant walks. The garden is looking for people who are interested in being volunteer docents to help meet this need. Those interested should have an outgoing, confident personality, as well as a willingness to learn and share their knowledge. Docents will receive training in Hawaiian plants and ethnobotany before they start leading tours, he added.
There is no age requirement to being a docent; high school students have served as docents in the past. A fourth-grader even led her class around the garden, Van Dyke said.
Moving through the garden, staff members or volunteer docents offer their wisdom during the guided native plant walk. Visitors learn about Umi, son of Liloa, who famously fought the Kona chief Ehunuikaimalino and united Hawaii Island in the 14th or 13th century. He was also renowned as a farmer and organizer. Visitors discover how Hawaiians learned to use the native flora to meet their needs and introduced crops that became the basis for their society and economy, Van Dyke said.
Visitors will see and learn about many plants, including hau, a twisty-trunked tree with hibiscuslike flowers; Hawaiian gardenia, fewer than 20 individuals remain in the wild; and kooloaula, an endangered shrub that produces small red-pink flowers. They hear stories about plants like naupaka, of which there are several species, but the beach and mountain varieties get the most attention because of the legend about separated lovers, Van Dyke said.
Visitors also learn the garden was named for Kona botanist Amy B.H. Greenwell, who donated the property to The Bishop Museum on her death in 1974, with the hope it would be an educational and cultural resource for people to revisit ancient Hawaii.
In the end, visitors leave with even more appreciation for the skills of Hawaiians, not just as farmers, but as foresters, herbalists, artists, engineers and even bureaucrats who could organize large-scale projects, such as the 50-square-mile of farms and gardens called the Kona Field System, Van Dyke said.
The garden is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For more information about the tours or to sign up as a docent, call 323-3318 or email agg@bishopmuseum.org. Also visit bishopmuseum.org/greenwell.
