Lyon Arboretum receives $105,000 award from Hawai‘i Community Foundation

Funds to aid preservation of culturally significant plants

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
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Posted: Sep 16, 2008

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa‘s Lyon Arboretum has been awarded $105,000 over 3 years by the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation for expansion of its collections of culturally significant native Hawaiian plants in its display gardens, greenhouses, and seed and tissue culture laboratory facilities.

"Because of our unique ability to propagate such plants, we will not only be serving as an important storage, or ʻbank‘ to safeguard important culturally-significant plants, but will also provide a distribution center for other organizations," says Dr. Christopher Dunn, the Arboretum‘s director. "We are thrilled by this very generous support from such a prominent foundation."

Nellie Sugii, research scientist at the Arboretum says, "This support will enable us to augment the work we are already doing to aid the recovery of rare species in Hawaiʻi." Targeted plant species will include those that were used for food and drink, medicines, cordage, building, tools, clothing, canoes and fishing, warfare, recreation and religious ceremonies, she said.

Plants will include alaheʻe, kauila, māmane, koa, naio, ʻaʻaliʻi, olopua, uhiuhi, ʻōhelo, pili, maile, and various cultivars of kalo, banana, among others.

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The Harold L. Lyon Arboretum is a unit of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. It is a 193-acre tropical rainforest located in the head of the Mānoa Valley and is open to the public. Its mission is to increase the appreciation of the unique flora of Hawaiʻi and the tropics, by conserving, curating, and studying plants and their habitats; providing inclusive educational opportunities; encouraging use by the broader community; and supporting the educational, scientific, and service activities of the University of Hawaiʻi.
The Arboretum is located at 3860 Mānoa Road, Honolulu, HI 96825.
Phone: 808.988.0456
Hours: 8am — 4pm, Monday — Friday; 9am — 3pm, Saturday