"to make a place of peace and tranquility"

Free! 

Tours

Guided Nature Hike - Saturdays at 10:00 am and Sundays at 1:00 pm. Reservations are required. Please call 808-233-7323

Group Tours - Please call 808-233-7323 for information

Events and Classes

Wedding Information

Fishing

Saturdays & Sundays 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

This catch-and-release program is fun for the whole family.  We provide bamboo poles with barbless hooks and you bring the bait -fresh white bread works great!  You may also bring your own poles with barbless hooks.  Fish commonly seen: tilapia and midas cichlid.

Camping

9:00 am Friday through 4:00 pm Monday

Camping within the garden is a wonderful natural experience for families, individuals and groups. 

Important Camping Information   html    pdf

Contact us Address 45-680 Luluku Road Kaneohe, HI 96744 Phone 808-233-7323 Fax 808-233-7326 email hbg@honolulu.gov

Mahalo nui loe e 

This humble little root, about the size of an adult thumb, was probably one of the two dozen or so plants brought to Hawai`i by early Polynesian settlers in their voyaging canoes. `Olena's scientific botanical name is Curcuma domestica. It is best known throughout the world as Turmeric, and is a member of the ginger family.

`Olena is rarely found in Hawai`i today. It grows in cultivation and in the wild in moist forested valleys, up to altitudes of 3000 feet, preferring shade, yet able to tolerate heat.

The `olena is without a stem, yet the overlapping clustered leaves appear to be growing out of a stem above ground. The leaves are blade-like, 8 inches long by 3 inches wide, and rise to about 20 inches high, directly from the underground root. This root/rhizome grows its leaves much as the banana does.

It is `olena's rhizome which is precious. In tropical India, turmeric is widely cultivated as a dye and as a spice, being the yellow color we associate with curry powder, which is actually a mixture of spices that includes turmeric. The root is thick and orange or yellow-colored on the inside. It is this bright color that is characteristic of turmeric, the cooking spice. In the language of Hawai`i, `olena means yellow. Dyes from these roots were used to color tapa cloth. Young roots were steamed to provide a light yellow dye and the steamed older mature roots provided a golden or a deep orange dye. The juice of crushed raw roots produces stain also.

Traditionally, this root can be used medicinally. The roots are pounded and pressed to extract a juice that, when mixed with water, is helpful in earaches and to clear the sinuses through nasal application. The astringent qualities of `olena are also useful in cases of consumption, tuberculosis, bronchitis, colds and asthma, the root being lightly cooked and then eaten. Its use enhances the immune system by purifying the blood. At times `olena has been taken as a diuretic, and topically it can be helpful with pimples or to stop bleeding. Turmeric is anti-bacterial. Also, when taken daily, as a teaspoon or powder in food, tea or encapsulated, this plant offers relief from a variety of diseases. It alleviates inflammation in the blood, often considered to be a cause of our human diseases.

Ceremonially, the traditional use for `olena is as a purifier, containing much mana, spiritual power. Pieces of the crushed root mixed with sea water are sprinkled to remove negative influences from places, persons and things. Typically, when someone is ill, or when a home or other place is to be newly occupied and needing blessing, a ceremony is held. To sprinkle, a ti leaf is dipped into a calabash or bowl containing the `olena and sea water. The sprinkling is accompanied by prayers.

If you wish to cultivate `olena in your garden, remember that this plant likes rich soil, some shade and plenty of water. After the rhizomes are planted, `olena hides in the garden for three or more months. In addition, this plant is usually dormant from about September to March, but the roots do survive and will revive to come up with green leaves once again. When they do, they will later show flowers on a stem developing from the center of the leaf stalks, called petioles. The cylindrical flower cluster is about 5 inches long. The pale yellow and white flowers grow on the lower pale green bract, while the upper pinkish part of the bract grows no flowers.

In Hawaii, the placing of a lei over the head and around the shoulders of a person exemplifies the bestowing of honor and respect, and also the spirit of aloha. According to Hawaiian tradition, the maile was the lei for people of all classes and all occasions. The maile is a long lasting lei and probably the oldest and most popular material used in leis by the early Hawaiians. It is an open-ended horseshoe fashion lei made of the spicy scented green maile stems and leaves.

The native Hawaiian vine, with shiny fragrant leaves, is a member of the periwinkle family, and is also associated with Laka, the goddess of Hula. Maile along with other plants of the native forest were considered sacred to Laka, and were offered at her altar at hula dance practices and shows. In ancient Hawaii, the maile was also considered a peace offering in the field of battle.

The maile is most often reserved for memorable occasions. It is known to many as the “lei of royalty,” given to signify respect and honor. The maile is very popular at weddings, graduations and especially proms. On the US mainland, young men usually receive a boutonniere from their prom dates. In Hawaii, they are presented with a maile lei. Wedding leis are a Hawaiian wedding tradition. The maile is the most traditional wedding lei, as it was used by the Kahuna (Hawaiian priest) in old Hawaii to bind the hands of the bride and groom, symbolizing their commitment to each other.

Kou Tree - Cordia subcordata We have Kou trees around Waikiki and around O'ahu. Kou Haole (Cordia sebestena) has a more orange flower and is slightly different than this tree. The city plants Kou trees all along the roadways and you will see them in many parking lots and parks. The Kou tree is an indigenous Hawaiian plant found around the Pacific region. The tree is very hearty and makes great shade on Waikiki beach. The flowers are used for lei making and the wood used for food bowls ('umeke). Long lasting with little shrinkage this wood is prized for large containers. Because of little sap or off flavors from the sap, this is a preferred wood for food containers. The leaf of the Kou is historically used to make a brown dye for Kapa, Hawaiian printed fabric.  

 

Mahalo Wikipedia - Cordia subcordata

In ancient Hawaiʻi kou wood was used to make ʻumeke (bowls), utensils, and ʻumeke lāʻau (large calabashes) because it did not impart a foul taste to food. ʻUmeke lāʻau were 8–16 litres (2–4 gal) and used to store and ferment poi. The flowers were used to make lei, while a dye for kapa cloth and aho (fishing lines) was derived from the leaves.^[3]

HAWAI'I'S ENVIRONMENTKou tree predates voyagers By Jan TenBruggencate Advertiser Columnist The kou tree was so useful to early Hawaiians, and is so widely spread throughout Polynesia, that it made perfect sense for early scientists to assume it was one of the "canoe plants." Those are plants Polynesians are assumed to have brought with them in canoes — the plants that they deemed critical to survival in a new land. Canoe plants included food plants, medicinal ones, and ones used for decorative purposes, cordage and more. Most of the nearly 30 canoe plants are found throughout the Polynesian Triangle. Kou is perhaps most valuable for its wood, which can be carved into sturdy, long-lasting bowls that can hold liquid foods without imparting a taste to them. In addition, its orange flowers were used for lei, and its leaves could be used to dye tapa, as Isabella Abbott wrote in her remarkable book "La'au Hawai'i: Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Plants." Other canoe plants were yams, sweet potatoes, gingers, bananas, breadfruit, coconut and many more. It had long been believed the pandanus, hala, was a canoe plant, for the food value in its fruit, but perhaps more for the prized leaves used for weaving mats, sails and much more. But some years ago, hala imprints were found in an ancient lava flow, proving the plants predated human presence in the Islands. More recently, hala pollen has been found deep in sediment layers at multiple sites that date to long before human arrival, confirming the lava-flow evidence. Now, it turns out kou falls into the same category. Pollen studies in the Makauwahi Sinkhole at Maha'ulepu on Kaua'i have found that kou was part of the coastal forest on Kaua'i thousands of years before the first Polynesians set foot on the archipelago. Archaeologist/ecologist David Burney, who conducted the pollen studies, said the find was a surprise. He has been trying to plant a forest that looks like what was on the southern Kaua'i coast before Hawaiians arrived, and his plantings now include both the kou and the hala. As Abbott has suggested, this still doesn't mean the first canoes didn't carry these plants. They were important enough to have been part of the canoe plant collection. But in these cases, the early visitors would have been confronted by something familiar amid all the strange Hawaiian plants and creatures. And they could have begun fashioning food containers from the kou and sleeping mats from the hala without waiting for their canoe-borne materials to mature and reproduce. A special mahalo to the National Tropical Botanical Garden

Apricot Hibiscus

Mahalo eHow!!

Ki - The Ti Leaf Plant

Cordyline fruticosa

The Ti Plant Called Ki

by Dino Labiste

Over the vast, South Pacific Ocean came the double-hulled canoes, searching northward into an unknown sea. On these voyagining canoes were the Children of Tangaroa, Tane, Ti and Rongo. In search of new land, these Polynesian settlers, called Kanaka Maoli (The People), came upon a chain of islands. With them they brought various seeds, tubers and roots to plant in their new homeland, Hawai'i.
One of the introduced plants to Hawai'i by the early Polynesians was a tall, stalk with tightly clustered, green, oval and blade-shaped leaves. The leaf was about 4 inches wide and varied from 1 to 2 feet long. It was a fast growing woody plant that reached from 3 to 12 feet in height. The plant was Cordyline fruticosa. Known to the Hawaiians as Ki, it was a ti plant, a member of the lily family.
Ki was considered sacred to the Hawaiian god, Lono, and to the goddess of the hula, Laka. It was also an emblem of high rank and divine power. The kahili, in its early form, was a Ki stalk with its clustered foliage of glossy, green leaves at the top. The leaves were used by the kahuna priests in their ancient religious ceremonial rituals as protection to ward off evil spirits and to call in good.
There were many uses for the ti plant in old Hawai'i. The boiled roots were brewed into a potent liquor known as 'okolehao. The large, sweet starchy roots were baked and eaten as a dessert. This versatile plant also had many medicinal uses, either alone or as a wrapping for other herbs needing to be steamed or boiled. The ti leaves were wrapped around warm stones to serve as hot packs, used in poultices and applied to fevered brows. A drink from boiled green ti leaves were used to aid nerve and muscle relaxation. Steam from boiled young shoots and leaves made an effective decongestant. The pleasantly fragrant flowers were also used for asthma. Besides its use in healing practices, the large ti leaves became roof thatching, wrappings for cooking food, plates, cups, fishing lures on hukilau nets, woven into sandals, hula skirts, leis and rain capes.

How to Care for a Ti Plantby Charmayne Smith, Demand Media
Gardeners in warm climates can dress up patios and gardens with the colorful, tropical ti plant. Native to Southeast Asia and the Pacific, this warm-weather plant is commonly known as the Hawaiian ti and thrives in U.S. Department of Agriculture planting zones 10 through 12. This colorful plant produces long, glossy foliage that ranges in color from rich greens to deep purples, and even includes variegated patterns.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/care-ti-plant-22654.html

Happy Holidays!!

Puakenikeni

Puakenikeni, Kane'ohe Hawai'i

Fagraea berteroana, Gentianaceae (gentian family)