Tag Archives: Eucalyptus

Foster Botanical Garden

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A Kapok tree, planted by Dr. Hillebrand and native to tropical America.

When I was in Honolulu, in December, I had a few hours to kill and decided to visit Foster Botanical Garden, which is not far from the downtown area. It’s one of five gardens that make up the Honolulu Botanical Gardens.

The garden dates back to 1853 when it was started by William Hillebrand, a German physician and botanist. It was sold in 1884 to Thomas and Mary Foster who continued to develop the garden. When Mary Foster died in 1930 she left the garden and her house to the city of Honolulu on the condition that the garden be maintained as a public park.

A Quipo Tree.
Rainbow Eucalyptus.
A bee on a Scarlet Powder-puff flower.

The garden is best known for its trees, some of which were planted by Dr. Hillebrand, and includes 21 trees designated ‘exceptional’ by City Ordinance. Despite it being a rather dreary day, walking through the trees and checking out the other plantings was well worth the visit.

Garden greenery.
A Silk Tree trunk.
A Wild Mussaenda flower with conspicuous bracts.

More information about Foster Botanical Garden here. Posted for Terri’s Flower Hour. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #64

Yellow boat on blue water.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 185. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A wounded Cornetfish.
Proud parents.
Passion Vine Butterfly on a Tasselflower.
Dirt blown by high winds at Kawaihae.
Ironman racers, but the sign is what I liked.
Can’t see the wood for the trees.

Abstracts: Eucalyptus trees

Abstracts-Eucalyptus trees

The Hamakua coast of the Big Island is the site of extensive eucalyptus forests. These tall, fast-growing trees are grown for export to Asia. Harvested trees are trucked to the west side port of Kawaihae and stored there until the next ship comes in.

However, last year, the company running the operation decided not to renew its lease. Since then, the landowners have been casting around for a new business to carry on the work, so far without success. So the trees continue to grow, making a pleasing sight with their dappled trunks catching dappled sunlight.

Log yard

Eucalyptus logs at the log yard at Kawaihae.
The Hamakua coast of the Big Island is the first landfall of the northeast trade winds and, consequently, gets a good deal of rainfall. Combined with warm tropical temperatures and good soil, the area is a prime growing area.

One of the crops is eucalyptus trees. The trees grow fast and straight. When they’re harvested they’re trucked to Kawaihae, the port on the west side of the island, to this log yard. They’re stored there until there are enough logs to ship to Asia, which seems to be about every couple of months at present.

I happened to be driving by late one afternoon and was struck by the light on the log ends. As can be seen from the hillside in the background, Kawaihae is one of the driest spots on the island, averaging around 10 inches of rainfall a year.