Did you know that the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus is home to the largest Baobab tree in the U.S.? In fact, the campus, which is an accredited arboretum, has an amazingly diverse collection of more than 6,000 plants across more than 800 species—accessible for the community to observe, enjoy and learn from. Exploring these plants is easier than ever, thanks to the campus online plant finder and a newly updated campus plants brochure.
“People don’t always have time to look up and take in the plants around them—we understand that,” said Nōweo Kai, curator at the UH Campus Arboretum. “We are encouraging people to slow down between classes, or to simply take a break and look up.”
Showcasing plants from Hawaiʻi, the Pacific and across the tropics, the UH Mānoa campus has been an accredited arboretum in the international ArbNet program since 2016. The campus landscape is a living laboratory for learning across many disciplines such as botany, horticulture, ecology, natural history, landscape studies and more.
- Related UH News story: UH Mānoa campus an accredited arboretum, March 7, 2016
Locate, identify campus plants
Curated by the UH Campus Arboretum, the online plant finder is a helpful tool for identifying many of the plants on campus. The map provides an image of each plant, catalogs its locations and gives detailed information including the plant’s biogeography, its scientific and commonly used names and much more. Users can either search for plants by name or characteristic, or browse through an interactive map.
“The plant finder is an amazing tool, one of the best things I have found,” said UH Mānoa student Kalawaiʻa Nunies. “The plant finder should be a foundation—a tool to build the skills to kilo (observe) and really understand the ʻāina (land) here at UH Mānoa. It is an amazing resource.”
We are encouraging people to slow down between classes, or to simply take a break and look up.
—Nōweo Kai
As a lei-maker, Nunies utilizes the plant finder to identify lei-friendly flowers and greens, such as lāʻī (ti leaf) and lauaʻe (fern) that grow on campus. As a volunteer with the Campus Arboretum, he has been guided through campus plant protocols, which allow him to collect small amounts of select plants from certain areas. However, plant gathering is not generally permitted on campus—if performed, it must be done in coordination with the arboretum or the UH Mānoa Landscaping Services department to avoid damaging the plants or coming into contact with ones that might be sickly or treated with insecticides.
Try out the online plant finder
A snapshot of the arboretum
The newest resource for navigating UH Mānoa’s diverse flora is an updated print brochure that highlights 55 of the plants found on campus. The featured plants were hand-selected by Kai and the Campus Arboretum to provide a glimpse of the diversity that the arboretum holds.
“This is part of the ‘interpretation’ of the campus plants,“ explained Kai. “There’s the maintenance, the cataloging and inventory and then interpretation, which includes this brochure, the physical plant signs around campus, tours and also collaborations with departments.”
The brochures will be distributed on April 21 at the Earth Day Fair on campus, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. at the UH Mānoa Sustainability Courtyard. Outside of Earth Week, a limited number of brochures will also be available at the UH Mānoa Office of Admissions.
—By Alisha Churma
