Palm Collection at the University of Hawaii at Hilo

[Rick Kelley]

The University of Hawaii at Hilo has an extensive botanical garden that would probably surprise many visitors.  It might also surprise a lot of the students whose dorm windows overlook the gardens but have never walked over to see what’s going on.  There are three separate areas planted along the edge of a large creek that runs through the campus.  One area contains an impressive collection of bromeliads.  The middle area has a large and diverse collection of cycads.  The third area is a long narrow pathway flanked by dozens of mature palms from the world’s tropics.  All of this is the result of decades of hard work by a single person, Dr. Don Hemmes, who began planting the palms a little over 30 years ago. Don is a cell biologist who took up the study of fungi once he joined the UHH faculty.  After he retired from full time teaching, Don has had more time to devote to the gardens and has been assisted by super volunteer Normand Goupil.  Between the two of them, they keep the gardens looking as though they were just vacuumed and dusted.

Here is Don with a Tahina that was knee high only a few years ago.

Every garden in East Hawaii has at least one Marojejya darianii.

A fairly recently added Ravenea krociana might soon be trunking.

This Lemurophoenix halleuxii has to compete with was much larger neighbors out of frame.

This Dypsis lastelliana is bursting with many inflorescences of different stages of development.

A large Beccariophoenix madagascarensis blooming its head off.

[Rick Kelley]

A huge Rafia australis might be close to blooming.

There is a grouping of spiney species from the Seychelles islands.

There is a pair of Phoenicophorium borsigianum with really wonderful huge fronds.

Verschaffeltia splendidia with its trademark stilt roots. Unfortunately, the beautiful entire fronds are lost in the crowded canopy.

The Verschaffeltias are dropping loads of seeds. Here’s one that lodged in the leaf scar of the neighboring Phoenicophorium, germinated, and is doing its best to hitch a ride.

When I stopped by last week the Deckenia nobilis had one clam shell bloom spike on one side and an opened inflorescence on the opposite side.

[Rick Kelley]

A pair of Syagrus botryophora.

Calyptrocalyx yautumune a bit larger than the photos on Palmpedia

Calyptrocalyx spicatus with a great spike of fruit.

Calyptrocayx polyphyllus

[Rick Kelley]

The garden has a large collection of Licuala species. 

Licuala khoonmengii

Licuala rumphii

Licuala fractaflexa Notice the brilliant yellow mushrooms below.

Leucocoprinus birnbaumii commonly grows in potted plants and is toxic

Licuala glabra var Selangorensis

Licuala kunstleri

A couple of trunking Licuala ramsayi

My favorite Licuala peltata var Sumawongii with a closeup of ripe fruit.

[Rick Kelley]

Kerridoxa elegans

Borassodendron machadonis

Arenga undulatifolia grows too large for most residential gardens, but fits in well here.

Heterospathe intermedia

Maruitia flexuosa

Mauritiella armata

 

Allagoptera arenaria

Manicaria saccifera

[Rick Kelley]

Don is always adding new species to the collection as space opens up. Here is a cluster of baby Loxoccocus rupicola

Reinhardtia latisecta compact form

The label of this group reads Gulubia microcarpa, but that is apparently an obsolete name. The Palmpedia entry for Hydriastele microcarpa has a photograph of these exact trees when they were much younger, so presumably this is the currently accepted name.

The large palms in front are Actinorhytis calaparia. The arrows indicate a pair of even taller Pigafetta elata in the distance.

[Rick Kelley]

Don’s beautiful gardens demonstrate how planting a seed can create a wonderful legacy for future generations.  In a different sense, Don’s long career in education and research has planted many ‘seeds’ through all the students who benefited from his guidance.  You never know where things will lead. Decades ago, Don invited a very bright local high school student to do a summer research project in his lab.  That student, Jennifer Doudna, went on to graduate from Hilo High School, and eventually earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology studying in the lab of a Nobel Prize winner at Harvard Medical School.  She continued further studies with another Nobel Prize winner at the University of Colorado Boulder.  This must have rubbed off because she won the 2020 Noble Prize in Chemistry for her pioneering work on CRISPR gene editing technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Doudna

Not sure if Dr. Doudna's home in Berkeley is landscaped with palm, but it certainly should be.

This is just a partial sample of the collection. If you visit the Big Island, be sure to stop by to see the entire UHH Botanical Gardens. They are free and open to the public.

[Jim in Los Altos]

45 minutes ago, Rick Kelley said:

A pair of Syagrus botryophora.

Calyptrocalyx yautumune a bit larger than the photos on Palmpedia

Calyptrocalyx spicatus with a great spike of fruit.

Calyptrocayx polyphyllus

Rick, Are you sure these are correctly identified as Syagrus? They don’t appear to be. 

[realarch]

Thanks Rick for the tour. I’ve walked this garden many times and relocated misplaced signs to their proper spot due to some mischievous students who live next door.

Don has done yeomans work, planting and maintaining the various gardens. He’s also been generous sharing seeds and plants as well. Some of the offspring are now happily growing in my garden. 

The Syagrus mentioned above are actually Veitchia.

Tim

[akamu]

Thank you for sharing this with us.  It is guys like Don that make this a better world.  This is a beautiful garden. I think alot of us would have a hard time concentrating on our studies at a school with such a nice palm collection cheers,and aloha

[Rick Kelley]

7 hours ago, realarch said:

Thanks Rick for the tour. I’ve walked this garden many times and relocated misplaced signs to their proper spot due to some mischievous students who live next door.

Don has done yeomans work, planting and maintaining the various gardens. He’s also been generous sharing seeds and plants as well. Some of the offspring are now happily growing in my garden. 

The Syagrus mentioned above are actually Veitchia.

Tim

Almost certainly the problem is my mixup on the ID.  Some palms are very recognizable, even to me.  However, I usually photograph the name plate just to be sure.  But when I take distant photos of tall palms, the photo of the corresponding name plate is often far out of sequence when I download the photos onto my computer.  I took about 150 photos including both Veitchia and Syagrus. Must have switched them.  

[WaianaeCrider]

If parking wasn't s B......, I'd go down to UH Manoa and see what palms they have at the "old" campus.

 

[mike in kurtistown]

Thanks Rick for the wonderful and well-documented photo tour. I've been fortunate over the years to join groups on tours of his garden led by Don, who served for several years as president of the Hawaii Island Palm Society, a position now held by Rick. I visited the garden last week to collect some seeds for a palm colleague in Florida. The palm was Hydriastele vitiensis, formerly known as Gulubia microcarpa. When Gulubia, Gronophyllum, and Siphokentia were merged into Hydriastele by Bill Baker, now the palm curator at Kew, Gronophyllum microcarpa kept the species name, but Gulubia microcarpa had to be renamed. Vitiensis is a place name based on Viti Levu, which I (think) is one of the Fiji Islands. I took my own picture of the Hydriastele vitiensis, shown below:

[Rick Kelley]

After a very lengthy application process, the volunteer team caring for the Botanical Gardens at the University of Hawaii Hilo recently received accreditation from BGCI Botanic Gardens International. This required cataloging the hundreds of species of palms, cycads, and bromeliads with currently accepted names, creating a searchable digital database and detailed map of the gardens, and setting up collaborative research projects with other institutions around the world. The garden was created by UHH professor Don Hemmes decades ago. Many volunteers have helped nurture the gardens over the years. The current crew includes Deb Beaty, JR Miles (HIPS president), Bill Nelson, Ken Beilstein (cycad specialist), and Rob Talbert, the computer guy who took the lead preparing the application and setting up the digital database.

The garden is located along a stream that runs through campus. Although today it is not prime real estate for building more parking lots or structures, the unofficial, volunteer nature of the gardens left them vulnerable to the whims of future university administrators. The goal of gaining the BGCI accreditation is to communicate to the university and wider public the value of the collection and hopefully protect it in perpetuity. Plus, it gives me a good excuse to post some current photos of a few of the star residents.

This photo was taken from roughly the same spot as the one at the beginning of this thread, 3.5 years ago. This Tahina is definitely in high gear. It might not be the largest one on the island, but it is right up there with the best. Immediately to the left of the guy posing for scale is a poor Lemurophoenix halleuxii about to be swallowed by the Tahina. Lots of hobbyists in Hawaii planted Tahina in their residential gardens 15 years ago when they first became available. Not everyone left enough room around to accommodate the massive size of these palms. 

Tahina have this odd habit of crawling sideways the first several years until they sink down a mature root system and take off growing vertically. You can see where the palm began off to the left and slid about three feet to the right before making a trunk.

And of course, every East Hawaii Island palm garden has to have at least one Marojejya.

This garden is a must see for any palm grower visiting the Big Island. It's easy to find in the middle of Hilo, and it's free!