Offered on Kauai, May 12-18, 2024

The Hawaii-based National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) is accepting applications for its Environmental Journalism Program offered May 12–18, 2024. Designed for professional journalists (staff or freelance) working in broadcast, print, online, and other media, the immersive program provides a background in tropical botany, ecology, and biocultural conservation with a progressive approach that honors Indigenous legacies and integrates cultural values. The program is structured to enhance well-informed, accurate reporting on environmental issues with a focus on tropical and island systems and the importance of plant science, conservation, and biodiversity.

The Environmental Journalism (EJ) Program is offered at NTBG headquarters, in three of its five botanical garden sites, and other locations on the island of Kauai. Established in 1964 by a Congressional Charter, NTBG encompasses ancient Hawaiian cultural and archaeological sites, extensive botanical living collections, a LEED-certified botanical research center, a botanical library and rare book collection, a seed bank and laboratory, a historical garden estate, a horticulture and conservation center, and other natural and man-made resources and facilities.

NTBG provides richly varied indoor and outdoor living classroom settings in which to study and experience new and traditional ideas while exploring critical concepts of biology, ethnobotany, biocultural conservation, habitat restoration, seed banking, agroforestry, and herbaria specializing in tropical and sub-tropical flora.

EJ Program presenters include NTBG staff and non-staff scientists, educators, and experts in botany, horticulture, taxonomy, field biology, ornithology, ethnobotany, and other related fields.

Participating journalists can expect to gain a greater understanding of important elements and current developments that will assist them in reporting on science and the environment. The goal of NTBG’s EJ Program is to introduce critical information and concepts in order to foster a greater understanding of these issues. The EJ Program is not expressly intended to provide source material for prospective news stories, although NTBG staff and other speakers may be available for interviews outside program hours.

NTBG provides all participants free on-site shared housing, airport transfer, and ground transportation. EJ Program participants are responsible for the cost of their own airfare to Lihue Airport on Kauai, meals, incidentals, and any additional expenses such as U.S. visas, etc.

Apply starting: Thursday, February 1, 2024 (6 a.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time)
Deadline to apply: Wednesday, February 21, 2024 (5:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time)
Notice of acceptance by: Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Dates of program: Sunday, May 12 – Saturday, May 18, 2024

*All participants will check into NTBG housing on Sun. May 12 and check out on Sat. May 18th

Required to Apply: Complete Environmental Journalism Program online application and provide two samples of recent work in print, audio, video, or online reporting (URL links only please). Submission of a CV/resume is optional.

APPLY AT: https://ntbg.wufoo.com/forms/environmental-journalism-program/

Website: https://ntbg.org/education/professional

Email: education@ntbg.org

Defining our approach to restoring relationships between plants, people, and places.

At its heart, biocultural conservation recognizes the inseparable bonds between humanity and nature. Many Indigenous cultures share concepts of kinship across species, elements, and places. In Hawaiʻi, the idea of ʻohana (family) transcends humans. For example, kalo (taro) is the older brother of kānaka (Hawaiians). Native Hawaiian scientist Keolu Fox says, “when I say that the land is my ancestor, that is a scientific statement.”

Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec shares the phrase “nii’kinaaganaa,” encapsulating the belief that “the world is alive with beings that are other than human, and we are all related with responsibilities to each other.”

Biocultural conservation accounts for these relationships, honoring the familial bonds that Indigenous communities maintain with biodiversity, integrating the life-sustaining, ecological knowledge cultivated over generations as they care for the land.

Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American U.S. secretary of interior, said, “Indigenous knowledge must be at the center of our conservation efforts, as we restore a cultural balance to the lands and waters that sustain us.” This call to action is echoed by the United Nations, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and other partners. 

Biocultural conservation integrates communities in collective stewardship and decision-making. It aims to protect not only plants and physical landscapes, but also cultural heritage, languages, practices, and social systems that are connected to the health of our shared environment. In biocultural conservation, our relationship with plants and places deeply matters. Perceiving the reciprocity of this relationship can lead to lasting, transformative change.

At NTBG our mission to perpetuate plants, tropical ecosystems, and cultural heritage is rooted in biocultural conservation. Below are six examples of what this concept means to our staff. Each has their own way of expressing biocultural conservation. As you read, we hope you’ll consider what plants mean to you and, conversely, what you mean to them.

—David Bryant, Director of Communications

On the global stage, biocultural conservation can be seen in international agreements such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, signed by 188 countries in 2023. The framework’s vision is “living in harmony with nature where, by 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.” 

This vision puts the relationships between people and nature at the center of solutions to ensure the best possible data, knowledge, and practices contribute to effective biocultural conservation.

To cite one example, in Colombia, dry forests are categorized as critically endangered ecosystems due to extensive clearing for cattle ranching and agriculture. To address this, a series of forest plots have been established in collaboration with local communities, that not only measure scientific biodiversity indicators, but also use community input to identify issues related to deforestation, biodiversity use, and valuation of ecosystem services. The hope is to find conservation solutions that satisfy both ecosystem protection and local societal needs. 

In Canada and Aotearoa (New Zealand), negotiated settlements of Indigenous rights in fisheries management are creating sustainable marine biocultural conservation models based on Indigenous knowledge and long-term commitments to sustain resources and ecosystems. These offer an alternative to the polarizing all-or-nothing models of commercial fisheries vs. marine reserves.

There are countless other examples around the world that illustrate how, through a combination of local, national, and international legislation and initiatives, biocultural conservation honors the intrinsic relationships between nature and humanity.

Similarly, at NTBG, we are harnessing our experience and expertise to build conservation programs that align with cultural values and community priorities while enriching life through the perpetuation of tropical plants, ecosystems, and cultural heritage.

—Dr. Nina Rønsted, Director of Science and Conservation

I see biocultural conservation as a way of expressing the intrinsic and scientific relationship between people, places, culture, and science. It’s a way of acknowledging that we practice science in its Western form, but there’s so much more to our work than that. At its core, these are deep connections and relationships with plants that have existed for generations. 

Often what we find is that the ʻike (knowledge) we have of plants from our ancestors aligns with scientific research and findings. Biocultural conservation is the way we’ve come to express that science has such deep meaning here in Hawaiʻi because of the ʻike from our kupuna (elders) and the deep relationships we share with plants.

—Lei Wann, Director of Limahuli Garden and Preserve 

NTBG’s only garden outside of Hawaiʻi, The Kampong, is in Miami, Florida. Our name, Kampong, can be translated as “village.” In this spirit, we use this space to honor the Indigenous communities that once lived here while celebrating the significance of our living collections to the rich tapestry of immigrant communities that make up Miami today.

At The Kampong, biocultural conservation is influenced by those who resided here before us. This includes Dr. Eleanor Galt Simmons, one of Dade County’s first licensed female physicians whose office and stable are on the grounds of The Kampong. From the 1890s, Dr. Simmons treated patients, making house calls by horse, buggy, and boat. Today we are planning a guided visitor experience that will interpret medicinal plants used by Dr. Simmons as well as by Native Miccosukee and Seminole peoples.

We also tell the story of plants collected by famed botanist Dr. David Fairchild who introduced thousands of edible and ornamental plants to the United States. David Fairchild named this site The Kampong in 1916.

Another key figure at The Kampong was Catherine “Kay” Hauberg Sweeney, an intrepid and impassioned plant collector who, with her husband, purchased this property in 1963. Mrs. Sweeney devoted her life to ensuring The Kampong remained a refuge for tropical plants and plant enthusiasts. The commitment of these early inhabitants laid the foundation for The Kampong today.

Looking ahead, we continue to add native plants to our collections. In collaboration with faculty of the International Center for Tropical Botany at The Kampong, our pursuit of plant research, public outreach, and education, is rooted in biocultural conservation. We remain focused on three themes: preserving tropical plant diversity; conservation and management of threatened tropical species and habitats; and fostering an understanding of tropical plant-based goods and services such as food, fuel, fiber, and medicine.

—Dr. Brian Sidoti, Director of The Kampong 

Central to biocultural conservation is human culture and our relationship to the natural world. This connection inherently expands our conservation practices, values, and priorities. Biocultural conservation provides us with more sources of knowledge and expands the range of people who are enthusiastic and invested in our work.

Biocultural conservation guides nearly all we do at Limahuli Garden and Preserve. But often overlooked are defining personal experiences. This is what it feels like to me: the shade of young kukui (Aleurites moluccana) saplings serving as nurse trees in newly cleared restoration areas. It feels like the stickiness of hau (Hibiscus tiliaceus) branches being stripped for cordage. I hear it in voices raised in oli (chants) at the beginning of each workday, and in the bird cries of uaʻu (Pterodroma sandwichensis) and aʻo (Puffinus newelli) barking in the Upper Limahuli Preserve.

Biocultural conservation tastes like refreshing ʻōhiʻa ʻai (Syzygium malaccense) fruits plucked from the tree and Tahitian prawns fished from the stream. It is the weight of kōpiko (Psychotria mariniana) branches and ʻalaheʻe (Psydrax odorata) collected for carving. Biocultural conservation maintains the ungulate fence, but also knows the names of the neighborhood hunters to call when you find a sign of pigs in the valley.

Biocultural conservation is not only theory; it is practice. It is action. It is listening, learning, striving, making mistakes, and trying again. Biocultural conservation is a lei formed from the interwoven strands of people, plants, and places which we are communally, perpetually weaving.

—Dr. Uma Nagendra, Conservation Operations Manager, Limahuli Preserve

At Kahanu Garden and Preserve, biocultural conservation teaches us the critical role humans play in the survival of native ecosystems. On the coast of East Maui, tradewinds deliver sheets of Hāna’s famous ua kea (white rain). Inside Kahanu Preserve’s hala (Pandanus tectorius) forest, the trees provide shelter beneath its canopy. There we can marvel at the tree’s fruit which resembles pineapples arching from the end of branches. The space evokes memories of the people who once used material from these trees to create thatched mats, hats, sails, and lei. Even the tree’s hīnano (male flower) was considered an aphrodisiac. Hala’s stilt-like roots also prevent erosion along the rocky cliffs where they grow.

Coastal hala forests, like those found in the Kahanu Preserve, have been dwindling across Hawaiʻi as a result of invasive species and habitat lost to agriculture and development. An introduced scale insect attacks hala, as is evident by the powdery shells sucking life from its leaves. Highly invasive African tulip trees emerge and spread over the hala canopy where they disperse thousands of seeds.

The future of hala forests like those found at Kahanu Preserve is uncertain, but cultural practitioners seeking fresh plant material have the opportunity to remove invasive plants, perpetuating their own practices while helping save young hala trees and contributing to the long-term health of the forest.

This is the interdependence of biocultural conservation at Kahanu Garden and Preserve. Without hala trees, cultural practices would almost certainly cease to exist. And without human stewards of the forest, the trees would also likely be lost. Through clearing invasive plants and supporting the growth of hala seedlings, we can perpetuate culture, preserve an ecosystem, and provide resources for future generations while protecting the island that protects us.

—Mike Opgenorth, Director of Kahanu Garden and Preserve

For me, an effective and meaningful biocultural conservation program at NTBG requires a full understanding of Hawaiian values, a Hawaiian world view, and my place in it. Kuleana (responsibility) and aloha ʻāina (love of the land) are values that guide my decision-making process.

The first Hawaiians understood that their actions needed to be sustainable so their relationship with the natural world could enhance biodiversity and ecosystem function. Prior to contact with the west, Hawaiians saw the importance of native ecosystem function as kinolau (physical manifestation) of the kini akua (pantheon of gods). All elements of nature — water, earth, the ocean — were kinolau of major deities.

Living with these sacred elements demanded thoughtful actions and deification required Hawaiians to respect and care for nature in a way that benefited people and ecosystems. This enabled Hawaiians to successfully settle in these islands and support a large population without the negative impacts so common today.

We can be guided by these principles, integrating them into the management of our gardens and preserves in a way that mitigates the harm caused by our modern lifestyle. By embracing biocultural conservation, we can acknowledge what we need to change and identify traditional practices that, if revived, can help maintain ecosystem function. A full understanding of how we fit into nature is essential in rebuilding natural systems that are abundant and resilient.

—Mike DeMotta, Curator of Living Collections

Over half-a-century, NTBG has hosted hundreds of interns that have become leaders in plant-based careers. In this series, get to know a few of our former and current interns who are forging their paths in tropical plant science and conservation and creating brighter futures for generations of plants and people.

Rocío del Mar Rivera Ramos grew up hearing her father’s experiences as an NTBG intern. Thirty years later, she followed in his footsteps.

By Jon Letman, Editor

As a child growing up in Puerto Rico, Rocío del Mar Rivera Ramos often listened to her father recall his experience as an intern at the National Tropical Botanical Garden 30 years earlier and 6,000 miles away. In 2022, while pursuing a degree in general agriculture from the University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez, Rocío decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and applied for the same internship still offered by NTBG.

Hawaiʻi was the furthest she had traveled from home so when she arrived on Kauaʻi, Rocío was excited to see this foreign landscape she had heard about for years. During the twelve-week-long internship, Rocío was able to build on the knowledge and experience she had already gained growing up on her family’s 25-acre farm where they cultivate coffee, vanilla, and Puerto Rican native trees.

When Rocío graduated from NTBG’s fall internship, her parents flew out to help her celebrate, giving her father a chance to see the garden that had been so important to him. Rocío was thrilled to walk with her parents amongst breadfruit trees that had been planted by her father decades earlier. Back in Puerto Rico, Rocío plans to pursue a career that combines agriculture, conservation, and entrepreneurship. She spoke about how NTBG’s internship has influenced her.

What are your plans after graduation?  

I really want to work with my dad on the agroforest we are developing on our farm. I also would like to continue my studies, maybe in entrepreneurship or agroecology.

Knowing your father had been an intern at NTBG 30 years earlier, how did you feel when you arrived on Kauaʻi?

I was really excited. It was very special because my parents flew out to Kauaʻi for graduation. My dad could see all the differences that had taken place. One really special thing was when my dad showed me the breadfruit trees he planted as an intern. I had the chance to cultivate and eat from those same trees. 

You eat breadfruit in Puerto Rico, right?

Oh my goodness, yes! We call it pana or panapén. To be honest, before the internship I had a breadfruit tree in my backyard but we only ate fried tostones or boiled pana. But in Hawaiʻi, it blew my mind how diverse it can be. In Puerto Rico we just boil or fry it. I saw how much you can do with breadfruit—it was amazing. I would really love to work more with breadfruit. I am also considering getting more into agricultural research to see if the field suits me.

What did you find similar or different between Hawaiʻi and Puerto Rico with regards to conservation?

In a way, Hawaiʻi is more conscious about conserving native species. I want to share what I learned with people here in Puerto Rico about how Hawaiʻi conserves its natural resources.

What impressed you most about your internship at NTBG? 

I feel like professionally this experience reassured me that agriculture and horticulture is the thing I want to do. It’s a really humble job, but it’s also really gratifying in the end.

Have you told friends and classmates in Puerto Rico about being an intern at NTBG?

When I came home, lots of people asked me about my experience. I told them how it changed my life. I learned so much at NTBG. I would really love to tell everyone at my university about this internship because I believe that a lot of people here in Puerto Rico can benefit. 

For people wondering why they should support NTBG internships, what would you tell them?

I feel like there are not many programs as unique as NTBG’s. I hope this program continues because for me, I learned what I want to do for the rest of my life. Perhaps future NTBG interns can discover his or her passion too.

Breadfruit Institute inspires college project

By Jon Letman, Editor

Since its establishment in 2003, the mission of NTBG’s Breadfruit Institute (BFI) has been “to promote the conservation, study, and use of breadfruit for food and reforestation.” Among its chief goals has been to encourage the use and understanding of breadfruit — called ʻulu in Hawaiian — so that it can best achieve its potential.

Today that goal is being realized through Ulutopia, a project run by the staff and faculty of Kaua‘i Community College (KCC). The project is centered around a three-acre plot of land divided into four quadrants, each with sixteen breadfruit trees. Since the trees were planted in 2016, Ulutopia has proven to be a popular outdoor classroom for local students and visiting researchers, as well as a source of abundant, nutritious food that is feeding the community.

Ulutopia’s genesis involved Breadfruit Institute director emeritus Dr. Diane Ragone and KCC faculty Brian Yamamoto and Sharad Marahatta sketching out ideas on a whiteboard with input from experimental design by BFI partner Dr. Susan Murch of the University of British Columbia – Okanagan. Brian, the project faculty lead and a professor of botany and microbiology, encouraged Sharad to develop the plan who came up with the name. Together they purchased a box of 64 tissue cultured five-gallon treelets — all Ma’afala — a Samoan variety which had been selected and carefully developed for mass distribution after years of research by Diane, Susan, and others.

Planted neatly in rows in what had previously been weedy, fallow land once used for growing sugarcane, rainfall and hand-trucked water provides are the site’s only irrigation. Walking between the leafy trees, Brian describes the value of the project for visiting researchers.

“There’s a group from New York running microbiological studies of the material under the mulch looking at carbon sequestration,” he says, mopping his brow on a muggy autumn morning.

A group of students from a technical college visiting from Japan used the site to practice measuring moisture content, temperature, and other indicators using ground sensors. Other researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi collected leaf samples to measure the impact of fertilization practices. 

One observation confirmed by measuring nutrient levels in soil and water, Brian says, is that because Ulutopia was planted on a slight grade, fertilizer and water flowing down slope have produced larger yields and larger trees than those growing up slope. With fertilization, Brian adds, the fruiting cycle has been extended to nearly year-round production. 

With such high yields, and because Ulutopia is supported by a federal grant, Brian explains that KCC donates all its harvests, supplying thousands of pounds of breadfruit to the Food Bank of Hawaiʻi, school cafeterias, and Kauaʻi’s primary hospital for use in its dining facilities. Previously the hospital purchased and imported frozen breadfruit from Hawaiʻi Island, but now serves breadfruit harvested just a few miles away. KCC also uses young breadfruit trees that rise from spreading root suckers for an annual community tree giveaway.

Ulutopia’s fruit is used for value-added projects including one that uses a commercial drier and grinder to make ʻulu flour, enabling the college to provide free flour to local bakers and KCC’s culinary program so they can experiment and gain proficiency before purchasing ʻulu flour in the commercial marketplace. 

Kauaʻi entrepreneur Dominque Chambers, owner of Cozy Bowl, a company specializing in breadfruit pasta (ʻulu campanelle, fusilli, rigatoni, etc.) relies on local ʻulu production, so when Ulutopia donated some 800 pounds of its fruit last autumn, she dehydrated what she could for flour, freezing the rest. Dominique, who has enthusiastically volunteered at NTBG, donates her time and sells a portion of her pasta at very low cost to support Nourish Kauai, a small Kauaʻi non-profit organization which provides chef-curated meal kits (more than 77,000 meals) to qualifying kupuna (grandparents/elders) in need.  

Dominique, an ardent ʻulu advocate, is a model of what the prioritization of breadfruit looks like. She says Ulutopia is “really powerful in terms of getting young people to become emotionally invested in farming ʻulu.” With a growing need to bolster food security in Pacific Island nations, she sees limitless potential in helping small and vulnerable communities.

Meanwhile, Ulutopia serves as a learning space for Kauaʻi youth. Trineen Lopes Lacaden and Shannon Pabo, instructors with KCCs Cognition Learning Center (“Cogs”), regularly introduce young students to botanical, horticultural, and other STEM subjects at Ulutopia where K-12 students learn to take measurements, collect data, and other horticulture an agriculture basics. Ulutopia also gives students from Hawaiian language charter schools the opportunity to interact with an important heritage crop.

Trineen says the most popular lessons revolve around eating, noting that students pay closest attention when they are active and touching the fruit, adding, “it’s tangible and they’re in the field, it just makes more sense and they’re more excited.”

Asked if Ulutopia would exist without the Breadfruit Institute, Brian answers emphatically: “No. Easily no. The only reason this came about was my connection to NTBG.” From its importance as a place for research and teaching, to the cultural knowledge perpetuated and vital food being provided to the community, Ulutopia offers a template that others can model and replicate in a space as small as half an acre.

After NTBG’s Mariella Mladineo, an agroforestry technician with the Breadfruit Institute, was given a tour of Ulutopia, she says it increased her appreciation of how the common goal of elevating breadfruit’s prominence can be achieved in many different ways. While Ulutopia’s approach differs from the BFI, the end goals are very similar. “At the Breadfruit Institute, we look forward to future collaborations with programs such as Ulutopia,” Mariella says, “to learn from each other and build on our shared knowledge.”

The newly published Flora of Samoa is now available for purchase

The National Tropical Botanical Garden is pleased to announce that the print edition of W. Arthur Whistler’s Flora of Samoa: Flowering Plants is now available for purchase. Decades in the making, the 940-page book includes 159 color figures, presenting the rich and diverse flora in its known entirety.

The Flora of Samoa project was spearheaded by Hawaii-based ethnobotanist W. Arthur Whistler who worked closely with Samoan partners to explore, collect, and study the Samoan flora, allowing him to incorporate a considerable number of taxonomic treatments emphasizing Samoa’s traditional ethnobotanical knowledge.

Whistler dedicated his career to documenting the Samoan flora. In 2015, NTBG commissioned Whistler as a McBryde Fellow to prepare a written flora of Samoa for publication. After Whistler’s death in 2020, botanists at NTBG and the Smithsonian Institution worked together to complete final editing and updating of the manuscript to ensure the flora was published.

Based on Whistler’s 4,900 specimen herbarium collections, the flora is the most current and complete scientific assessment of the Samoan archipelago’s 543 native plant taxa, including 177 endemic species, 290 naturalized flowering plant species, and 225 ferns and fern allies. More than one-third of Samoa’s native plants are found nowhere else on earth. Samoa’s largest family of flowering plants is the orchid family (Orchidaceae), with 101 native species, followed second by the coffee family (Rubiaceae), with 47 native and six naturalized species.

Flora of Samoa: Flowering Plants is listed at $100 (USD) plus 4% general excise tax and shipping. The book can be ordered by emailing NTBG staff at lorence@ntbg.org or kmagoun@ntbg.org.

Free Downloadable Tropical Plant Coloring Books

Learn more about tropical food plants, Hawaiian culture, and our islands’ unique ecosystems with our new coloring books! Click the images below to download a printable PDF. Each coloring book features beautiful drawings of tropical plants coupled with fun facts, sure to please plant lovers of any age.

About the National Tropical Botanical Garden

Did you enjoy these coloring books? Consider supporting tropical plants through a donation today.

---

Everyone can have an impact on #GivingTuesday! Join NTBG on November 29 by pledging your time, skills, voice, or dollars to grow a brighter tomorrow for the tropical plants that sustain and nourish us all. Add Giving Tuesday to your calendar and be sure to follow us on social media!

Five Ways to Give on GivingTuesday

People need plants. They are the root cause of our health, habitat, and happiness. More than ever, plants need you. Join us this fall as we explore how cultivating deeper connections with plants can grow a brighter tomorrow for our ecosystems and communities.

If you haven’t thought about plants today, you’re certainly not alone. Even though plants make our everyday possible, many of us seldom pause to appreciate just how important they are to our health and overall wellbeing. Plants and people go together. In the Hawaiian worldview, kalo (taro) is an older sibling who continues to feed and nourish communities across the islands. Ola ke kalo, ola ke kānaka; ola ke kānaka, ola ke kalo is a Hawaiian proverb that means if kalo lives, Hawaiians live; if Hawaiians live, kalo lives. 

“In some Native languages, the term for plants translates to ‘those who take care of us,’” says Potawatomi botanist and Braiding Sweetgrass author, Robin Wall Kimmerer. From lowering stress and anxiety, to producing cancer-fighting compounds and healthy regenerative agriculture systems, plants are often our best teacher and most helpful remedy. Increasing our awareness and recognition of plants is the first step in protecting our precious biodiversity. Our future depends on it.

Becoming Plant Passionate

Plants feed, shelter, heal, and fuel us. They inspire art, help us express emotion, and guide many of our cultural and spiritual practices. Data also shows that spending time in nature improves our mental and physical health. So, why do we often overlook their importance to all life on Earth and limit our interest in plant conservation? 

Researchers have noted a growing indifference to plants. There are many reasons for plant unawareness. In urban areas, many people lack equitable access to plants, parks, and natural spaces. Plants are underrepresented in education. From kindergarten to college, plant science is fading from curriculum and school programs. It also has to do with what’s inside our heads: since most plant life is similar in color, mostly stationary, and densely packed, our brains can be hardwired to lump them together instead of noting their differences. In other words, many of us tend to see the forest and not the trees. Importantly, awareness for plants differs across cultures. Most research on the topic has been done in Western societies, whereas Indigenous communities often have a deep and fundamental awareness of plants.

We must increase our awareness and empathy for the plant life surrounding and supporting us. In his 1968 speech to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum said, “In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.” The more we engage with plants and experience their positive effects on our health and wellbeing, the more likely we are to protect them. It’s time to become plant passionate.

Modern Medicine and the Power of Plants

Plants have always healed us and today are found in a quarter of our medicines. Yet, most drug researchers focus on synthetically-derived medicines. Despite technological progress, the number of new drugs brought to the market is in decline. However, drug discovery from plants and other natural products continues to be highly productive and effective. 

“Today, we are still challenged by a long list of unmet medical needs for safe and effective medicines,” said Nina Ronsted, NTBG’s Director of Science and Conservation. “One of the grand challenges for humankind remains the identification of new leads for pharmaceutical research,” she continued. The need for new leads is just one reason plant science and conservation are essential not only to the health of our planet but also to our people. “It is not easy to guess which plants might cure which diseases,” said Nina. “As extinction accelerates, we risk losing potential medicines even before they are discovered,” she concluded. 

In recent history, compounds from the Madagascar periwinkle have increased the survival rate of childhood leukemia from 10% to 90%. In addition, a compound initially found in Pacific Yew trees (Taxus brevifolia), is the cancer-fighting component of Taxol. This drug inhibits the rapid multiplication of  cancer cells. Today, Taxol is on the World Health Organization’s list of Essential Medicines and is one of the most effective drugs for treating multiple forms of cancer. 

“The potentially useful compounds that plants have developed over time in response to herbivores overcoming their effects are increasingly complex and specialized,” noted Nina. “Many of these compounds may affect humans and become cures for diseases,” she finished. 

With time, plant research and conservation will reveal more about the connection between plant compounds and human health. But what can we do today to strengthen our connection and improve our health right now? The answer is a walk in the park (or garden!).

Healthy Plants, Healthy Planet

On any given weekday, you’ll find Noel Dickinson of NTBG’s Breadfruit Institute tending to the trees and edible understory plants in the Regenerative Organic Breadfruit Agroforestry (ROBA) demonstration in NTBG’s McBryde Garden. Breadfruit has long been an important staple crop and a primary component of traditional agroforestry systems in Oceania. In addition to providing food and goods, breadfruit agroforests offer broad ecosystem benefits such as soil and water conservation and biodiversity maintenance essential to long-term island habitation. ROBA is a two-acre display garden and model for implementing breadfruit agroforestry in tropical regions and areas of food scarcity worldwide. 

For Noel, breadfruit agroforestry does more than produce nutritious food and regenerate land degraded by erosion, compaction, and loss of organic matter. It nurtures her, builds relationships, and provides an opportunity to learn and grow. “Plants are a huge part of my life, personally and professionally, and breadfruit has had a big impact on me,” said Noel. “Through my work with the Breadfruit Institute at NTBG, I have been able to learn new things as well as literally share the fruits of my labor with my community,” she effused. “I have also, at times, been given a platform to represent the gardens,” she said. “Being an ambassador for not only breadfruit but also NTBG is a great joy for me.” 

Studies show it’s not just Noel benefitting from time spent with plants. Plants can generate happiness, reduce stress, and increase positive energy in the home. In addition, access to parks and outdoor spaces increases rates of physical activity and overall healthiness. Research also shows that people who spend more time around plants have better relationships with the people around them. 

Healthy Today, Here for the Future

Plants and people are inextricably linked. From everyday wellbeing to the next medical breakthrough, we need plants to maintain our health and the health of our planet today. As we navigate and study the effects of climate change, our future also depends on our ability to recognize the plant life surrounding us, learn from it and investigate solutions for what lies ahead.

NTBG’s latest alula research was recently published by Applications in Plant Sciences

For nearly six decades, the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) has been saving plants. Among the many rare and endangered plant species NTBG is known for conserving is the genus Brighamia, a member of the bellflower family (Campanulaceae), endemic to (found only in) Hawaii. Called alula in Hawaiian, both species — Brighamia insignis and Brighamia rockii — grow on Hawaii’s steep slopes and high sea cliffs. In the 1990s, National Geographic famously photographed two NTBG botanists rappelling over Kauai’s Na Pali coast, collecting plant material to propagate in the nursery.

In the decades since, Brighamia rockii has dwindled to just eleven known plants that cling to the cliffs of Molokai. Its close relative, Brighamia insignis, last seen on Kauai, is now believed to be extinct in the wild. However, thanks to the efforts of NTBG and others, the alula has been successfully cultivated and is even commercially available as a houseplant in Europe and elsewhere. NTBG staff and scientists continue to conserve and study the alula with ongoing research featured in the most recent issue of Applications in Plant Sciences, a publication of the Botanical Society of America.

In an article co-lead authored by NTBG conservation biologist Seana Walsh, scientists show how the adaptation of pedigrees used by the zoo community can be used to manage botanical garden collections and reduce inbreeding, resulting in healthier plants. Researchers selected Brighamia insignis as their case study. Their findings illustrate the importance of maintaining diversity through strategic cross pollinations. 

In the same issue, seedbank and laboratory manager Dustin Wolkis lead authored an article about seed dormancy and germination of Brighamia rockii. The authors found that a high percentage of the seeds germinate over a range of temperatures and are suitable for propagating from seed for conservation. Research suggests these seeds are unlikely to form a long-live soil seed bank and will need human intervention to be reintroduced into the wild.

By continuing to study and conserve this charismatic native Hawaiian plant genus, collaborating with likeminded organizations and institutions, NTBG is playing a leading role in advancing the understanding of rare and endangered plants and ensuring the preservation of irreplaceable biodiversity.

Advancements in drone technology aid in rescuing rare cliff-dwelling plants

The summer of 2022 started off with hopeful celebration at our Conservation Nursery on Kauai as three different critically endangered plant taxa collected by the Mamba drone arm set roots from cuttings – laukahi (Plantago princeps var. anomala), akoko (Euphorbia eleanoriae), and Lysimachia iniki. 

The Mamba, developed by Outreach Robotics with the help of NTBG scientists, is able to collect rare plants from otherwise inaccessible places. Mamba also allows for a much faster retrieval time. What used to take hours of hiking and rappelling to collect plant material, now takes minutes with the Mamba. This result is fresher plant material arriving at our Conservation Nursery and an increase in the likelihood of successful propagation. 

Think of it like rescuing an imperiled person from a remote spot. If you hike to reach the person and carry them to safety on a stretcher, the chance that they are under additional stress is much higher than quickly airlifting them. The sooner we can get the patient (plant) back to the emergency room (our Conservation Nursery), the greater chance of survival.

While attempting to set roots from cuttings in both Lysimachia iniki and akoko has occurred before, it was the first known attempt to do so with laukahi due to its rarity. That all three sprouted roots is an inspiring accomplishment for the Mamba field collection and nursery teams, providing further proof of how new technology can advance rare plant conservation. 

Laukahi (Plantago princeps var. anomala)

Laukahi (Plantago princeps var. anomala) is a small erect or ascending woody shrub that grows on steep slopes and cliffs in wet forests in the Upper Hanapepe and Kalalau valleys on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Curiously, laukahi is one of more than 250 species in the genus Plantago, largely temperate in distribution, but also occurring at high altitudes in tropical areas and on oceanic islands like Hawaii. While some consider Plantago species like Plantago major to be invasive or ‘weedy,’ Kauai’s Plantago princeps is Critically Endangered with less than 50 individuals known to occur in the wild. 

Further field collection trips with Mamba could have a big impact on the future of critically endangered plants like laukahi. The original cutting is doing well at the nursery and even recently developed a flower stem. A flower means seeds, and seeds mean increased hope for future restoration in the plant’s natural habitat.  

Lysimachia iniki

Past samples of Lysimachia iniki brought to the Conservation Nursery were fragments of plants that had fallen from the sheer cliffs below Kauai’s summit after storms. Incidentally, this is how the species got its name. Lysimachia iniki‘s discovery occurred after Hurricane Iniki’s devastating winds dislodged the native plant from its steep habitat. No past plant fragments brought back to our nursery had ever survived. That is until now. 

Two Lysimachia iniki propagules are thriving under the care of our staff in the Conservation Nursery. There is only one known population of Lysimachia iniki, underlining the importance of this major breakthrough in the conservation of this Critically Endangered Kauai endemic plant. 

Additional Success for Rare Plants

The Mamba has brought additional success beyond laukahi and Lysimachia iniki. A rare Rubiaceae, Kadua st-johnii, grew from a seed collected off of a cutting and a less rare Lysimachia hillebrandii also took root. Lysimachia, a member of the Primrose family, is often difficult to grow from cuttings. The successful rooting of Lysimachia hillebrandii in our Conservation Nursery reinforces that the speed with which Mamba retrieves plant material directly affects survivorship in the nursery.

There have been some setbacks. Akoko (Euphorbia eleanoriae) survived for four months after setting roots. While this specimen did not make it to maturity, it is the first time the species set roots in cultivation. The team at the Conservation Nursery plans to build on the knowledge gained from the first attempt to try again with future field collections. 

Ultimately, the Mamba allows us to reach rare plants that are otherwise unreachable. For some of these cliff-dwelling species or any plants that grow in hard to reach areas, these developments in drone technology may be the best hope for their continued survival. “The use of drones also allows a fast turnaround for processing cuttings and placing them in our mist-house or in a temperature controlled location for protection,” says NTBG Nursery Manager, Rhian Campbell. “As we continue to develop protocols for the handling of these cuttings and learn everything we can about propagating these extremely rare species, we are also likely to become more successful with them over time.”