Tag Archives: Hawai’i Tropical Botanical Garden

April flowers from March showers

Water lilies at Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden
Water lilies.
Painter's Pallette Anthurium at Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden
Painter’s Pallette Anthurium.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘April Flowers.’ See more responses here.

Looking through my files, I found a dearth of flower photos taken in April, except for one visit to Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden a couple of years ago. These photos are from that visit.

A Phalaenopsis Orchid at Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden
Phalaenopsis or Moth Orchid.

Some ‘flowers’ aren’t flowers at all. These are the bracts of the plants, which are far more showy than the small flowers that emerge from them later.

Heliconia Pogonantha at Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden
Heliconia Pogonantha
A red Heliconia at Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden
Red heliconia
Hanging Lobster Claw Heliconia at Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden
Hanging Lobster Claw Heliconia
Beehive ginger plants at Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden
Beehive ginger

For more information about Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden, go to htbg.com.

Tropical Milkweed

An Asclepias curassavica flower in Hawaii
An Asclepias curassavica flower in Hawaii

Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) is an introduced species here. It’s become popular in part because milkweeds are food for butterflies, including Monarch Butterflies, whose numbers have been falling for some time. However, there are questions about whether planting Tropical Milkweed is a good or bad thing.

One concern is that Tropical Milkweed’s perennial habit might be disrupting the Monarch’s epic migrations. Another concern is that the plant hosts Oe (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha), a parasite that adversely infects butterflies, and that is passed down to subsequent generations. This parasite is more prevalent in non-migratory butterflies such as those in Hawaii, but it’s not clear whether Hawaii’s population is suffering in the same way as some of those on the mainland. Hawaii’s Monarchs primarily use Crown Flowers to lay their eggs.