The Harold L. Lyon Arboretum is a

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

and

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe 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 ...

managed by the University of Hawaii at Mānoa located at the upper end of Mānoa Valley in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. Much of the Arboretum's

botanical Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

collection consists of an artificial lowland tropical

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

with numerous trails and small water features.

History

The Manoa Arboretum was established in 1918 by the

Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association The Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA) was an unincorporated, voluntary organization of sugarcane plantation owners in the Hawaiian Islands. It began as the Planters' Labor and Supply Company in 1882, later transforming into the HSPA in ...

to demonstrate watershed restoration and test various tree species for reforestation, as well as collect living plants of economic value. The original director of the arboretum was Dr. Harold L. Lyon, a botanist from Minnesota who was plant pathologist for the HSPA. During his tenure, Lyon planted nearly 2,000 species of trees on the site. In 1953, at Lyon's urging, the HSPA conveyed the arboretum site to the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, with the stipulation that the site continue to be used as an arboretum and botanical garden in perpetuity. After Lyon's death in 1957, the arboretum was renamed in his honor. Today, the Arboretum continues to develop its extensive tropical plant collection, while emphasizing native Hawaiian plants, such as '' Pritchardia'' spp. ( palms). Its over 15,000 accessions focus primarily on the monocot families of palms,

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

s, heliconias,

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...

s, and aroids. Native and Polynesian cultivated and wild species are displayed in the ethnobotanical, native ecosystems, and Hawaiian sections of the gardens. In 2014, 12 Albizia trees were removed for threatening other species in their vicinity.

Presentation

Land property

Lyon Arboretum is adjacent to land owned by the City & County of Honolulu's Board of Water Supply as well as State conservation land and the site of the former Paradise Park. Paradise Park was a theme park with trained bird shows and the Treetops Restaurant, and is frequently confused with Lyon Arboretum, but these are separate entities. Funds to purchase the Paradise Park parcel were appropriated by the state in 2002, but the purchase was refused in succession by Governors Ben Cayetano and Linda Lingle.

Seed bank

The Lyon Arboretum also maintains an active seed bank. By 2024, the Seed Conservation Laboratory has banked 33 million seeds, including 300 threatened and endangered plant taxa across 55 families. The seed laboratory is part of the Hawaiian Rare Plant Program (HRPP).

Seismograph station

The park's abandoned seismograph station has the reputation to be haunted.

Public Hours

* Open Monday through Friday from 9 am until 3 pm. Access is limited to reservation only.

References

External links

Official site

Lyonia Occasional Papers on ScholarSpace
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