By Jon Letman, Editor              

Writing in A Monographic Study of the Hawaiian Species of the Tribe Lobelioideae Family Campanulaceae in 1919, botanist Joseph Rock described the genus Brighamia as “one of the most curious Hawaiian Lobelioideae, though not one of the handsome ones.” Rock noted that renowned American botanist Asa Gray named the succulent genus for Dr. William T. Brigham, the first director of Honolulu’s Bishop Museum.

Cabbage on a Fence Post

Describing the species that would later bear his name — Brighamia rockii — the Vienna-born botanist wrote unflatteringly: “It certainly is a most grotesque plant.” German botanist William Hillebrand, who preceded Rock in Hawaii by half a century, compared Brighamia to a “cabbage put on a fence post.”

Lobeliads, to which Brighamia belongs, found their way to the Hawaiian Islands some 13 million years ago in a single migration, evolving into 159 endemic taxa of Campanulaceae (bellflower family).

Rock was certain that Brighamia migrated from Australia, perhaps as one of the last of the Lobeliads to arrive in Hawaii and, as a result, lacked sufficient time to speciate before animals and humans began to present a threat.

Brighamia insignis and Brighamia rockii

In the early 1900s Brighamia was classified as a monotypic[1] genus although botanist Charles Forbes differentiated between the Brighamia on the cliffs of Kauai with their yellow flowers which inspired the species name citrina, and the Molokai form which bears white flowers. Today they are recognized as two species, B. insignis and B. rockii respectively. In Hawaiian they’re best known as alula or puaala.

Viewed side by side, they differ only slightly in appearance except for the color of the flowers. Other differences — calyx lobe size, leaf shape, seed surface — are very subtle.

Rock documented Brighamia’s habitat in the early 20^th century — the steep, windward cliffs of Niihau, Kauai, Molokai, and Lanai. He reported seeing Brighamia on the cliffs of the Kalaupapa peninsula of Molokai and “on almost bare rockwalls between Kalawao and Waikolu, within the spray of the sea, only a few feet above the mighty breakers of the Pacific.”

He also reported Brighamia growing in the dry, rocky gorges at the entrance to Molokai’s Halawa Valley. French botanist Jules Remy collected a single specimen in the early 1850s and the last Brighamia seen on Niihau was in 1947.

Searching the Known Habitat

It was another botanist, Harold St. John, serving as a scientific advisor for NTBG in the mid-1970s, that first suggested to a young nurseryman and field botanist named Steve Perlman to search for, collect, and grow Brighamia. Perlman was unfamiliar with the genus but began searching the known habitat.

Over the next three decades, Perlman, along with fellow NTBG botanist Ken Wood, climbed, rappelled, hand pollinated flowers, and later collected the tiny seeds as they defied gravity, roping along the vertigo-inducing cliffs of Kauai and Molokai.

Among their findings, they located several plants along the upper cliffs of Molokai’s Wailau Valley, but those plants are now gone. They spent years searching for B. rockii in the Halawa Valley, but found none. Perlman and Wood also collected seeds on Huelo Rock off Molokai but those plants are now gone. Perlman spotted B. rockii on Molokai’s Kaaloa cliffs and a few plants may remain.

Wild Brighamia Populations

The largest remaining wild population of B. rockii is on the cliffs of Waiehu, east of Wailele falls, but a series of landslides has rendered the area too hazardous to work and NTBG botanists haven’t been back since they last roped down to the site in 2011. The last known seed collection of B. rockii was by staff of the Plant Extinction Prevention program in December 2014. Today there are an estimated 30 plants remaining on Molokaii’s seacliffs.

On Kauai, B. insignis populations crashed after Hurricane Iniki devastated the island in 1992, with the last plant dying on Mt. Haupu in 2002 and the last one seen on the Na Pali Coast around 2015.

With the threat of landslides, hurricanes, feral goats, rats, and the loss of the suspected pollinator, a giant sphinx moth, wild Brighamia spp. hover just above extinction.

Between Kauai and Molokai, on the island of O‘ahu, there have never been credible claims documenting Brighamia. If it ever did exist there (nothing suggests that is so), one could posit that with limited field collectors and the difficulty of accessing steep cliff terrain, any plants might have vanished before they were discovered.

Working to Save Species

Spanning more than 30 years, NTBG botanists have collected seed from all Brighamia spp. colonies, making repeat visits to conduct pollen exchanges by hand, and returning to collect seed for deposit at NTBG’s Conservation and Horticulture Center. Garden staff determine if seeds are put into storage or propagated for outplanting. NTBG usually has anywhere from 50 – 250 B. insignis and less than a dozen B. rockii in the greenhouse for planting in the gardens.

Multiple attempts at outplanting B. insignis have been made with some of the most successful results in the relatively protected Limahuli Valley which is near their native habitat.

Perlman says, “We would like to have some protected areas to do outplanting of species…the best way to keep that species the same and alive is to put it back where it evolved, where you have the same rainfall and same kind of soil.”

Pollination and Seed Banking

Having hand-pollinated and collected tens of thousands of seeds, NTBG staff have partnered with Kalaupapa National Historic Park on Molokai whose natural resource managers have planted B. rockii on the cliffs as part of restoration efforts.

On Kauai, NTBG’s Seed Bank and Laboratory currently houses over 15,000 seeds from 52 accessions representing B. insignis and more than 11,000 B. rockii seeds from 23 accessions.

Seed Bank and Laboratory Manager Dustin Wolkis notes that Brighamia spp. represent some of the NTBG’s earliest seed collections, going back 24 years. Part of storing seeds at NTBG is conducting germination trials to better understand how long seeds can be stored and how to increase longevity. The seeds are desiccation tolerant but decline more rapidly at -18°C (conventional storage temperature) compared with cool +5°C.

Genetic material is also stored by the University of Hawaii’s Lyon Arboretum Hawaiian Rare Plant Program which has over 100 in vitro Brighamia spp. seedlings, as well as some 20,000 seeds (6,000 B. insignis and 14,000 B. rockii) banked. Additional seed collections are held by the National Laboratory for Genetic Resource Preservation in Colorado, and elsewhere.

For over a century, Brighamia has captured the imagination of botanists and fueled their passion for rare plant conservation. This includes Seana Walsh who, prior to accepting a position as a conservation biologist at NTBG, completed her Master’s thesis on the floral biology, pollination ecology, and ex situ genetic diversity of B. insignis.

Walsh has gone on to help establish collaborations between NTBG, Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG), and others who are conducting ongoing studies of genetic diversity of Brighamia. Based on these results, researchers at CBG are developing and implementing an ex situ conservation management plan for the species that considers lessons learned by zoologists with similar genetic management goals.

Cultivation

Besides outplanting live plants and storing living genetic material, growing B. insignis in cultivation and sharing widely among botanic gardens and the horticulture industry has increased plant numbers to the tens of thousands. These efforts stem from Perlman, who began sending Brighamia seeds to other botanical gardens, first across the U.S. and then in Europe where they caught the attention of commercial nurseries in the Netherlands and elsewhere. According to the sourcing guide PlantSearch, B. insignis is cultivated ex situ in at least 55 botanical collections.

In recent years, B. insignis has taken off as a wildly popular house plant sold in Europe as the “Vulcan palm” or “Hawaii palm.” And while there may be only one B. insignis and just a few dozen B. rockii left in the wild, today there are thousands of B. insignis growing in cultivation, all but ensuring they won’t fade away any time soon.

From a conservation standpoint, commercially grown cultivated plants may not be the ideal end goal, and yet the botanists who have spent decades literally risking their own lives to find, collect, and save these gems of plant evolution say it’s better than the alternative: an endemic plant genus abandoned on remote cliffs, left on its own to slip quietly and unnoticed into the permanence of extinction.

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[1] A genus with only one species

In 1955, a 37 family-strong community alliance called Hui Kuai Aina o Haena that had owned the ahupuaa (watershed and coastal lands) of Haena on Kauai’s north shore for nearly 100 years, began partitioning the region. By 1967, a third-generation member of the group, Juliet Rice Wichman, had negotiated ownership Haena’s Limahuli Valley.

A Love of Hibiscus and Hawaiian Plants

Juliet, a lover of Hawaiian plants, with a passion for collecting and growing hibiscus, had a vision to protect Limahuli which she recognized as culturally important and ecologically fragile. In 1967, she began removing cattle from the valley so the plants could start to recover. She also launched the restoration of centuries-old dry-wall style kalo loi (taro terraces).

By 1976 Limahuli was home to a small but growing botanical garden where 3,300-feet high valley walls had sheltered undiscovered rare plants for centuries.

Seeking to ensure her vision of restoration would continue in perpetuity, Juliet and her son Charles gifted the 13-acre Limahuli Garden to the PTBG — Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden. In 1994, the property grew to over 1,000 acres when Juliet’s grandson Chipper and his wife Hauoli gifted the entire valley to the Garden.

That Garden (now called NTBG) accepted the kuleana (responsibility) to malama (care for) the land as Juliet and others had done before. PTBG Director Dr. William Theobold recognized that because Limahuli had never been cultivated for large-scale agriculture, it held great promise for undiscovered native plant varieties, forms, and possibly even endemic species.

In 1977 Theobold called for the first-ever botanical survey of the valley, assigning the task to staff including Chipper who, at the encouragement of his grandmother, had completed the Garden’s internship in 1977 and was working as a head groundsman.

Hidden in the Valley

That summer Chipper, along with other staff, explored Limahuli’s deepest recesses, gullies, ridges and streamside. Among their findings: at least 88 Polynesian introduced and rare, endemic species including Lobeliods, Cyanea, Psychotria, native sandalwood (iliahi), ebony (lama), and many others.

Chipper reported finding two new color variations of Hibiscus saintjohnianus which had been previously identified as endemic to Kauai’s Na Pali Coast. The newly discovered forms (later classified as Hibiscus kokio subsp. saintjohnianus) extended the species’ known range and diversity.

In the PTBG Bulletin of January 1978, Chipper wrote: “One of the forms we found has bright orange petals with a creamy yellow, almost ivory colored staminal column, while another form has petals which are red with just a tinge of orange.”

In the late 1990s, noted wildlife photographers Susan Middleton and David Liittschwager spent months documenting life in the Hawaiian Islands for what would become their landmark book Remains of a Rainbow: Rare Plants and Animals of Hawaii. When they came to shoot in Limahuli Valley, they worked closely with Chipper.

Years later, Middleton recalled her introduction to kokio ulaula. “Chipper enthusiastically showed me what was clearly one of his favorites — a shrub with deep green leaves and striking orange flowers.”

Bold And Bright

Unlike other Hawaiian flora which she found to be subtle, even shy, kokio ulaula was bold and bright. Middleton remembers thinking, “stunning — a world class plant!”

“They must have taken 500 photographs…” Chipper said of the encounter. The shoot resulted in Limahuli’s brilliant orange hibiscus being featured prominently on the title page of the iconic book.

Decades later Middleton still associates the striking orange hibiscus with Chipper and the Limahuli Valley. Kokio ulaula, she says, represents “the exquisite beauty, elegance, and value of Hawai‘i’s rare native plants.”

By Steve Perlman, Plant Extinction Prevention Program, Statewide Specialist

There we were, three botanists deep down a vertical slope in the remote mountains of West Maui, in the biologically rich Kaua‘ula Valley, preparing to conclude a long day of field work for the Plant Extinction Prevention (PEP) Program. It was nearly five o’clock and we were still a couple of hours’ hike away from our camp but taking one last look through his binoculars, my colleague Hank Oppenheimer pointed and said, “What’s that tree two ridges over?”

“It looks like Hibiscadelphus to me,” I answered. Although we were surrounded by cliffs and high peaks, Keahi Bustamente said he saw a way to reach the tree and so, overcome with the unexpected rush of excitement, we agreed to embark on the adventure.

An Incredible Discovery

After crossing two nearly vertical gulches, I waited for Keahi and Hank, so the three of us could enter the forest area together for what we were sure would be an incredible discovery. When I saw the fruit and Hank spotted the flowers, there was no doubt in our minds: we had discovered a new species of Hibiscadelphus.

While most people are familiar with commonly cultivated hibiscus, far fewer ever see Hawai‘i’s native hibiscus with flowers that range in color from red, pink, and white to orange and the bright yellow Hibiscus brackenridgei — Hawai‘i’s state flower.

Even more rare is the incredibly unique endemic genus Hibiscadelphus of which six of the seven named species are already extinct in the wild. Hawaiians call it hau kuahiwi meaning mountain hibiscus. Early 20^th century botanist Joseph F. Rock first named the genus in 1911 for a species he worked with, naming it Hibiscadelphus — literally “brother of Hibiscus.”

Only one species — H. wilderianaus — represented by a single tree, had ever been found on East Maui and Hibiscadelphus was completely unknown on West Maui before we discovered this population of about 25 trees.

The Long Way Back

By the time we had collected flowers, fruit, seeds, and photographs, it was getting dark. We started up the cliffs and tried to return to camp by going straight up. Bad idea. We ended up using ropes and went a way we did not want to ever repeat. Fortunately, each of us carried head lamps, allowing us to make it back to camp by 9 p.m..

After our discovery, we decided to compare it with all known Hibiscadelphus in consultation with leading experts studying the Malvaceae family who confirmed it was indeed new to science. In subsequent field trips, our PEP team explored further and has since identified three sites populated by nearly 75 trees.

Hibiscadelphus stellatus

After considering a name for this plant, we decided on Hibiscadelphus stellatus. The Latin species name stellatus means star-shaped and alludes to the stellate hairs or pubescence. Stellatus also acknowledges the stellar (outstanding) beauty of the flower. The key differences between the West Maui Hibiscadelphus and its closest relative, H. wilderianus, are the dense white or tan stellate hairs on leaves, stems, bracts and larger purple colored flowers, yellow colored within. The flowers of Hibiscadelphus attract endemic honeycreeper birds whose bills match the decurved flowers, allowing the birds to drink the sweet nectar and cross-pollinate the flowers.

Following peer review and acceptance, our description of Hibiscadelphus stellatus was published in journal PhytoKeys 39: (pgs. 65-75) in 2014. The plant was also meticulously illustrated by Alice Tangerini, a staff illustrator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany.

Preventing Plant Extinction Together

For those of us who work to save these unique plants, we see them as jewels of creation. For me personally, I’d like to think that all of us care about saving biodiversity because extinction truly is forever. This discovery, a great success for the PEP Program, is also a success for NTBG because together, we’re saving plants.

In 2014, Steve assumed the role of statewide specialist for PEP, concentrating on rough terrain field work on Kaua‘i and across the state. Steve is based at PEP’s Kaua‘i office located inside NTBG’s Botanical Research Center, allowing him and PEP staff to partner with NTBG. The PEP program’s Kaua‘i office has been housed at NTBG since its beginning as the goals of both are the same — to prevent plant extinction. Together NTBG and PEP locate, collect, and monitor Hawai‘i’s most endangered plants in the face of threats like introduced weeds, rats, feral ungulates (especially goats, pigs and deer), habitat loss, and disease. Among PEP’s goals are collecting seeds for long-term storage and growing endangered species in micropropagation tissue labs.

Currently, around 450 Hawaiian plant species are federally listed as endangered, far more than any other U.S. state. While more than 130 of the more than 1,350 species in the Hawaiian flora have gone extinct in the wild, Hawai‘i has experienced zero plant extinctions since the establishment of PEP in 2001. Today the PEP Program has botanists working on Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Maui, Moloka‘i, Lāna‘i, and Hawai‘i Island. Learn more: http://www.pepphi.org/

About PEP

The Plant Extinction Prevention (PEP) Program, operates as a project of the Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit of the University of Hawai‘i. PEP focuses on conserving the rarest of rare plants —238 Hawaiian species with 50 or fewer known wild individuals. Research Biologist Steve Perlman, who has worked for and with NTBG since 1972, played a central role in the development of the PEP Program, even giving the program its name.

By Mike Opgenorth, Director, Kahanu Garden and Preserve

Kahanu Garden and Preserve, in Hāna, Maui, is home to Pi‘ilanihale Heiau, a National Historic Landmark and the single largest archaeological structure in the Hawaiian Islands. Plant collections at this powerful Hawaiian place are largely those of ethnobotanical origin; in other words, plants that reflect the agricultural customs, lore, and uses within a culture. Most of the ethnobotanical plants at Kahanu Garden are Pacific Island and Hawaiian heritage plants.

Prominent among them is Kahanu Garden’s maia (banana) collection, which represents varieties bred from plants that were painstakingly transported across the Pacific. The collection includes many rare varieties that are valued as food, building materials, medicine, and for use in ceremonies such as the annual welcoming of makahiki, which recognizes the rising of the Makalii (Pleiades) into the heavens.

Canoe Plants

Prior to the 1778 arrival of Westerners in Hawaii, a wide variety of Polynesian-introduced “canoe plants” including bananas were planted in some of the most remote, and idyllic locations throughout the islands. These plantings were intended to provide food for travelers on long journeys, or even as sacred gardens reserved for a special purpose such as in times of political instability when one had to flee home for solitude in the forest. These bananas also were reserved for use as a kind of offering presented to alii (ruling chief) or as a highly regarded gift.

Unfortunately, since that time, many of these remote indigenous crop gardens have been overgrown by invasive species. With their disappearance come the loss of unique biological material and the stories of their origin. Those losses are akin to removing pieces of the puzzle of Hawai‘i’s early history.

In recognition of the threat of losing indigenous crop diversity, NTBG recently adopted a strategic goal to collect and curate all extant cultivars of Hawaiian canoe plants. The number of those early varieties is a fraction of what it once was, and research to verify each is ongoing. The current status of many of these rare varieties is debated and requires much more than simply placing a few new plants in the garden. 

Meanwhile, for all the indigenous crop varieties that still exist, NTBG serves as a safe haven where they can be preserved and shared for future generations. The fact that most of East Maui is still free of the Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) is an important reason that Kahanu is a safe haven for these Hawaiian banana cultivars.

A Feast of Fruit

Walking through Kahanu Garden’s banana collection is a feast for the senses. Standing in rows, vigorous banana plants tower over a mixture of kalo (taro), awa (kava), and wauke (paper mulberry). Growing in multi-layered crop plantings alongside the bananas, the plants recreate a landscape of Hawai‘i’s ancestors where heavy bunches of fruit cascade from above in a multitudinous display of colors, shapes, and sizes.

Consider Popoulu Huamoa, the variety that first greets you with its enormous sausage-shaped fruits. Beside it stands Iholena Upehupehu with deep salmon-purple leaves. Then, perhaps the biggest showstopper of all, a rare Manini, the only traditional Hawaiian banana with all variegated leaves and fruit.

Each of these varieties is unique and reveals the diversity of Hawaiian bananas while underscoring the importance of NTBG’s collections. Bananas belong to the group of plants known as Zingiberales (gingers, heliconias, and related families), and NTBG is an official conservation center for the Heliconia Society International (HSI), which strives to conserve documented living collections of these plants.

With multiple locations in Hawaii, different NTBG gardens will be tasked with piloting different collections. Limahuli Garden on Kauai’s North Shore preserves the main collections of kalo, while McBryde Garden is home to the uala (sweet potato) collection, and Kahanu Garden is home to collections of maia (bananas) and ulu (breadfruit).

By protecting all extant cultivars of canoe plants within our gardens, NTBG continues to grow as an invaluable resource for researchers, cultural practitioners, and as a place to safeguard Hawai‘i’s ethnobotanical and cultural heritage. As demonstrated by NTBG’s Breadfruit Institute and the collection at Kahanu Garden, NTBG plays a vital role in advancing solutions to global hunger.

Banana Blindspot

Today bananas are the most widely consumed tropical fruit in the world and, as a result, don’t elicit the same sense of wonder that they did when first introduced to the United States at the World’s Fair in Philadelphia in 1876. Yet, as commonplace as bananas have become, it’s easy to forget it wasn’t always so. What is often overlooked ­— call it a “banana blindspot” ­— is how many varieties still exist and why they need protection.

Most commercially grown bananas are of the Cavendish group — varieties like Williams, Dwarf Chinese, and even Hawai‘i’s local favorite, the ‘Hawaiian Apple.’ The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates roughly 47 percent of global production is of the Cavendish group with more than 50 billion tons of bananas produced globally each year. In the United States and the European markets, Cavendish bananas virtually dominate the entire market.

So what is wrong with this picture? Imagine a single plant species represented by just one variety as the only thing growing for hundreds of miles. This type of agricultural system, driven by our demand to produce economies of scale, leaves little opportunity for diverse habitats and ecosystems to thrive. 

With genetic uniformity in such large plantations, one disease can spread like a hot spark in dry tinder, completely destroying entire farms in one fatal swoop. To cite one example, a new Fusarium wilt strain called TR4 is currently an enormous threat to Cavendish banana production as it quickly spreads throughout the world.

When existing commercial varieties do not exhibit the resiliency to combat these types of new diseases, it is important that other banana varieties are available to preserve irreplaceable genetic diversity that can help feed the world.

How can we counter the negative impacts of large plantation agricultural system failures, the loss of major food crops, and the displacement of ecosystems? One answer can be found in Hawaii’s kupuna (elders) who share an important sentiment — nana i ke kumu (look to the source) — in addressing today’s complex problems. When considering how to preserve the irreplaceable diversity of Hawaiian canoe plants, in this case, bananas, NTBG will continue to look to the source as we document, collect, and protect the banana varieties that are an invaluable part of Hawaii’s cultural and botanical heritage.

Conservation Biologist Seana Walsh fondly recalls the scentless Hawaiian mint Phyllostegia electra not for its absent fragrance, but because it was the very first plant she collected on her first day of field work for NTBG.

Botanizing along with colleagues Steve Perlman and Merlin Edmonds, Seana brought seeds of the delicate P. electra back to the Garden’s Conservation and Horticulture Center where it was propagated and planted in the Montane Forest Display, allowing scientists to examine the rare plant without the expense and risk of undertaking an arduous journey.

Phyllostegia electra is endemic to the mesic and wet forests of Kauai and only rarely seen outside its habitat. Like other native Hawaiian plants, P. electra evolved in isolation and free of predators which is why it and Hawaii’s other 63 endemic mints lack the odorous oils that serve as a defense mechanism.

Critically Endangered

Furthermore, P. electra is assessed as Critically Endangered (CR) according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and a focal species for achieving conservation objectives outlined in the Hawai‘i Strategy for Plant Conservation. It is not, however, protected by the Endangered Species Act.

With less than 50 known wild individuals growing in 15 subpopulations, P. electra was added to the University of Hawaii’s Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP) [see related side bar on page 6]. Since early 2017, NTBG and PEPP have worked together to collect seeds and cuttings from known individuals, and search potential P. electra habitat for more.

As part of an ongoing genetic population study, NTBG is collaborating with Chicago Botanic Garden to better understand diversity in this species. Increased diversity means a more vigorous, robust gene pool and a better chance of survival for this species which is threatened by feral pigs, goats, rats, and even slugs and snails.

Propagated seeds or cuttings are outplanted into appropriate, protected, and managed habitat like the Upper Limahuli Preserve on Kauai’s north shore.

Seed Storage

Meanwhile, Seed Bank and Laboratory Manager Dustin Wolkis is experimenting with the seeds to determine how they respond to drying and cooling which will inform optimal storage methods. 

Phyllostegia electra fruits in the spring and cleaning seeds is a labor intensive process. After seeds are cleaned, Dustin tests initial exposure to liquid nitrogen to rapidly freeze seeds in order to avoid ice crystal formation (which can be lethal to cells) before transferring them into a -80°C freezer for long term storage. At this time, NTBG is the only facility in Hawai‘i testing liquid nitrogen for the cryopreservation of seeds.

A two-year grant from the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund helps pay for field botanists like Seana to fly out to remote habitat to collect plant material and for supplies like liquid nitrogen. By testing seeds for optimal storage conditions, the chances of saving the species from extinction greatly improve.

Dustin says, “This research, combined with ongoing collection, will reduce extinction risk and aid in the species’ recovery.” Collection, propagation, and the seed storage trials for this scentless Hawaiian mint continue.

Plant lovers inherently appreciate beauty. We marvel at the arc of woody stems, the gentle curl of a leaf, or the way sunlight penetrates flower petals to reveal unexpected colors. The observation of plants is visually captivating and intellectually instructive whether we are arranging flowers at the kitchen sink, examining a stately tree in a garden, or collecting the seeds of an endangered shrub.

When we admire plants online, the internet offers up a flurry of photos, videos, and images that we click through like an old-fashioned movie projector. Increasingly, technology allows us to manipulate, enhance, and improve images with a few mouse clicks to create “picture perfect” photos of flawless flowers and plants that “pop.” In doing so, however, we run the risk of overlooking the centuries-old tradition of botanical illustration.

Botanical Illustration at NTBG

But in the world of botany, scientists and students, collectors and curators not only still appreciate, but absolutely depend on hand-drawn illustrations, paintings, and other traditional plant renderings.

At NTBG, we greatly value the importance of preserving and using historical botanical artwork in books and print collections. At our Botanical Research Center on Kauai, The Sam and Mary Cooke Rare Book Room houses our botanical art collection, including a complete set of the Banks Florilegium. We also host botanical illustration workshops at The Kampong in Miami and at NTBG headquarters where we help foster and exhibit the art of the NTBG Florilegium Society.

In an attempt to underscore and explain its timeless beauty and scientific value, we’ve asked our staff and partners to share their thoughts on why botanical illustration matters.

Why Drawing Plants Matters

“Botanical illustration serves as a connection between art and science and, in fact, is firmly planted in each discipline. As an addition to herbaria, it provides a detailed description of the species, whether as a pen and ink illustration or a richly colored watercolor, highlighting and magnifying hidden details and presenting them in an easily understood visual format. The illustrations give life and a three dimensional quality that contrasts and compliments the dried plant specimens found in herbaria.” —Tim Flynn, NTBG Herbarium Collections Manager

Important for Plant Science

“Botanical illustration is an important aspect of plant science for a number of reasons. The illustrator emphasizes the important or diagnostic characters of a plant for the viewer. This is particularly true for pen-and-ink line drawings, which are generally used to illustrate or supplement descriptions of new plant species.

Indeed, the illustrator may see details that the botanist misses. Line drawings give the general aspect or habit of a plant, plus details of essential characters such as veins, pubescence or hairiness, flowers, fruit, and seeds that are magnified or shown in longitudinal or cross sections. These black and white line drawings may appear two-dimensional and flat, since they are usually drawn from dried, pressed herbarium specimens.

Illustration Preserves Plant Species

Another type of illustration is the florilegium style, usually done in watercolor or color pencil.  This brings vibrant, lifelike color to the plant being illustrated and varies with each artist’s personal style. Details such as a close-up of the flowers or seed, a cross section of the fruit, a sketch of the habitat, growth habit of the plant, and even associated organisms such as herbivorous insects or pollinating birds or butterflies may be included in the illustration.

A botanical illustration can preserve a plant species, variety, or cultivar in books and journals almost in perpetuity, even if it goes extinct in the wild. Such was the case with a critically endangered Hawaiian endemic genus and species, Kanaloa kahoolawensis, first discovered and published only two decades ago but now known only from two plants in cultivation. Finally, illustrations can also help conservation efforts by creating public awareness and empathy for plants.”—Dr. David Lorence, NTBG Senior Research Botanist

“Explained simply, botanical illustrators and their works serve the scientist. They depict what a botanist describes, acting as the proofreader for the scientific description. Digital photography, although increasingly used, cannot make judgements about the intricacies of portraying the plant parts a scientist may wish to emphasize and a camera cannot reconstruct a lifelike botanical specimen from dried, pressed material.

Although illustrators now make greater use of digital research material and use the computer for digital illustrations, the thought process mediating that decision of every aspect of the illustration lives in the head of the illustrator. Whether pen and ink, pencil, watercolor, or the stylus on a drawing monitor, the tools only move at the discretion of the illustrator. 

Historically, the illustration process follows the language of the scientist. Illustrators adapt media, presentation, and drawing styles to serve with current trends in scientific writing and to facilitate documentation of the scientific literature. However, the illustrator also has an eye for the aesthetics of botanical illustration, knowing that a drawing must capture the interest of the viewer to be a viable form of communication. Attention to accuracy is important, but excellence of style and technique used is also primary for an illustration to endure as a work of art and science.” —Alice Tangerini, Staff Illustrator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany 

I don’t simply copy how a plant looks but must explain plants through my drawing.

Wendy Hollender, Botanical Illustrator, Instructor, and Author 

“The aesthetic beauty of botanical illustration has fascinated and inspired people for centuries but beyond its visual appeal, botanical drawings help identify and understand plants in a timeless manner. Its original purpose was to aid in plant identification for medicinal and culinary uses. Over the centuries, as the discipline developed, botanical illustration has proven itself invaluable in identifying newly discovered plants.

Carl Linnaeus, known as the father of modern taxonomy, and botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret, famously used botanical illustration to classify and describe the structure of plants. In the early nineteenth century, Belgian painter and botanist Pierre-Joseph Redouté captured the magnificent plants in the garden of Napoleon Bonaparte and Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais.

As a botanical illustrator, I don’t simply copy how a plant looks but must explain plants through my drawing. Botanical illustrations must reveal a plant’s morphological structure such as the arrangement of reproductive parts, leaves, and stems with a three dimensional quality.

Botanical illustration attracts and compels us. A pretty flower is not just a pretty flower, it has a specific purpose: to attract a pollinator. The flower’s visual appeal comes from colorful markings and its enticing scent lures the pollinator to the nectar within.

The scientific study of plants is essential for dealing with environmental changes, containing the spread of invasive plants, and saving endangered species, all issues addressed through botanical illustration. Although science has focused mostly on black and white pen and ink drawings, color can be used as well provided the artist capture a plant’s important structural elements.

What I find most alluring about botanical art is its seductive quality — drawing me in, feeding my desire to linger inside the mysterious center of the flower, looking through its leaves to another flower like an insect fluttering from blossom to blossom. Imbued with beauty and color, the botanical illustration seduces and attracts.”

—Wendy Hollender, Botanical Illustrator, Instructor, and Author 

A botanical artist can tell the whole story of the plant

Sarah Roche, Botanical Artist, Teacher, and Education Director

“A botanical illustration is not primarily judged on its artistic beauty, but on its scientific accuracy. It must portray a plant with enough precision and detail for it to be recognized and distinguished from another species. The beauty of the drawing or painting is secondary to its scientific accuracy, but, in the hands of a talented botanical artist the illustration can go far beyond its scientific requirements.

Photography can help inform but only drawing can emphasize the detail. A botanical artist can tell the whole story of the plant: what it looks like at any stage of its life cycle and in every season. Important details can be added at different magnifications so that the important features of the subject, not shown simultaneously in nature, can be displayed together to tell the whole story of the plant.”

—Sarah Roche, Botanical Artist, Teacher, and Education Director, Wellesley College Botanic Garden

The Art of Plant form and Evolution

“The tradition and practice of incorporating botanical illustration, watercolor, and other media into the process of describing new plant species continues to be a rich and profound contribution to the science of botany. For many, the written diagnosis or description of a species, although exacting and artistic in its own right, is often quite dull and lifeless. For me, time and time again, it is the manuscript’s botanical art contribution that brings to life the uniqueness and sublime diversity of the species being described.

The botanical art itself becomes a lens for the viewer to see deeper into the divine artistry of a plant’s form and evolution, which in most cases helps define the key parts that render the species new to science. It is true that well-taken photographs could suffice in displaying the unique qualities of the plant being studied, but for many it is the botanical artist’s rendition that is preferred and brings us closer to the subject.

What attracts us to botanical art? Perhaps it is the combination of careful attention to detail, along with the arduous internal human process of transforming a species’ visual likeness and character through the filter of mind and soul. Meticulously stirred together with the artist’s love for nature, the image flows through hands, communicating the importance and beauty of an ancient creation only newly described.” —Ken Wood, NTBG Research Biologist 

This article was originally published in The Bulletin of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Fall/Winter 2017