Nani Mau Gardens
Encyclopedia
Nani Mau Gardens are commercial botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

s located at 421 Makalika Street, Hilo, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 on the island of Hawaii
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...

, coordinates 19°40′20"N 155°3′17"W. They are open daily, and an admission fee is charged. The gardens' name, Nani Mau, means "forever beautiful". They were established by Makato Nitahara and opened to the public in 1972.

Exhibits

Today the gardens claim to contain more than 2,000 plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 varieties, with approximately 225 types of flowering plants, including 100 species of fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 trees; and over 2,300 orchids, said to be one of the world's largest collections of Paphiopedilum
Paphiopedilum
The paphiopedilums – often abbreviated Paph and colloquially known as paphs in horticulture – are flowering plants in the orchid family . It contains about 80 accepted species nowadays, some of which are natural hybrids...

, Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....

, Epiphyte
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...

s, Oncidium
Oncidium
Oncidium, abbreviated as Onc. in the horticultural trade, is a genus that contains about 330 species of orchids from the subtribe Oncidiinae of the orchid family . This is a complex, difficult genus, with many species being reclassified...

, and Cattleya
Cattleya
Cattleya is a genus of 113 species of orchids from Costa Rica to tropical South America. The genus was named in 1824 by John Lindley after Sir William Cattley who received and successfully cultivated specimens of Cattleya labiata that were used as packing material in a shipment of other orchids...

 orchids. The gardens also contain a number of trees planted by famous visitors.

Major garden features include an anthurium
Anthurium
Anthurium , is a large genus of about 600–800 species, belonging to the arum family . Anthurium can also be called "Flamingo Flower" or "Boy Flower", both referring to the structure of the spathe and spadix....

 grove, Japanese-style bell tower (built from 20,000 boards without nails or screws), botanical museum, butterfly
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 house, European garden, fruit orchard, ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....

 garden, hibiscus
Hibiscus
Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world...

 garden, Japanese garden
Japanese garden
, that is, gardens in traditional Japanese style, can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, and at historical landmarks such as Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and old castles....

s, orchid display, palms and coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

 trees, and water garden.

Botanical museum

The botanical museum contains exhibits about the nature of the island's tropical plants, the threats to their existence, and their role and uses in Hawaiian culture and art.
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