4/1/10

Na 'Āina Kai Botanical Garden

We saw many nice things in this garden, but I am not prepared to deliver any kind of organized presentation. If you have specific questions, I might be able to help you in the comments. Otherwise, please visit the garden's website.

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I'm always quite enchanted by "vines" on trees. At home I have climbing Rosa 'Moonlight' in my Ceanothus and passionvines in my Tibouchina. Of course this look, with Philodendron, wouldn't work in San Francisco.

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It already seems like we have every manner of palm in the Bay Area (the palm map takes a few minutes to fully load), but I suppose we aren't quite there yet.

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I also enjoyed touring this garden's extensive hardwood plantation.

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Topping the trees thickens the trunks.

Casuarina, in the hardwood plantation

chameleon

Apparently, this baby albatross hangs out in this spot all day long, waiting for his parents to get home from work, hundreds of miles away, quite indifferent to all the human visitors passing by. I used my camera to zoom in, of course.

Albatross baby

Solandra maxima. Rarely seen in San Francisco but this woody climbs redwoods and eucalyptus in Golden Gate Park. (More common seen in Southern California where it's a-not-too-uncommon landscaping plant.)

Solandra maxima

Cotton. California grows enormous quantities of cotton. Ridiculous! Agriculture claims most of the state's water (subsidized, of course) while the rest of us live in perpetual drought.

Cotton

Cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a mallow, in case you didn't know.

Cotton

I had no idea there was another Monstera besides M. deliciosa. This is M. acuminata. I think it's kinda creepy.

Monstera acuminata.

I wish I'd taken more (better) pictures of it.

Monstera acuminata

Strongylodon macrobotrys. I think the Logees catalog is the closest I've ever gotten to this plant before now. The vine covered the entire swing-gazebo, but there were only a few flowers.

Strongylodon macrobotrys

I'm not sure what this vine is but it had as much flower as leaf.

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From the other side, with flash.

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The only plant I really want: Plectranthus ambonicus. A succulent-leafed, extremely fragrant oregano. Not a great looker, but I WANT SOME.

Plectranthus ambonicus

6 comments:

rainymountain said...

Thanks for sharing your trips in Hawaii. The palms are so beautiful, and the plants and the landscape are very interesting. Looking forward to the next installment.

Anonymous said...

The red vine is Mucuna bennettii

Kaveh Maguire said...

Love that Monstera! If you are ever in NYC visit the New York Botanical Garden. They have an amazing specimen of Strongylodon macrobotrys in the aquatic pool and vine house.

Unknown said...

Really amazing pics Chuck- as usual! And the Monstera- it looks fake!

Les said...

I have been enjoying your Hawaiian posts. That Strongylodon has been teasing me from other people's post as well. That color is not common in the garden. You also showed my favorite palm in this post, the Bismark.

Megan said...

Beautiful pics! I love the weirdo monstera. It's almost alien.