A Dinosaur Garden

I had no idea I'd find myself in Jurassic Park when we signed up for a tour of the Allerton Garden along the southern shore of Kauai. (Allerton Garden is managed by the National Tropical Botanical Garden for the Allerton Gardens Trust.)
I was impressed by the trees even before the guide told us that this place was used for the movie.

Do you remember the movie scene when the kids, Tim and Alexis, were getting strangled in a jeep which fell on the crowns? After they, with help of paleontologist Alan Grant, got out, the jeep fell down on these same roots!



Ficus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay Fig, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the Moraceae family that is a native of most of the eastern coast of Australia.




Its common name is derived from Moreton Bay in Queensland, Australia, although it is found elsewhere. It is best known for its beautiful buttress roots, which they say are also known for damaging municipal footpaths.
It is widely used as a feature tree in public parks and gardens around the world in warmer climates such as California, Portugal, Sicily and Australia. Old specimens can reach tremendous size.

The trees on my pictures were planted in 1940s. They look ancient, don't they?




But let me go back to the beginning of the tour.
To get to the Allerton Garden, we took a tour vehicle which drove us along a cliff road and through the Maidenhair Gap. The Gap was carved from rock to create a path for sugar cane trains. Growing on the rock face are ferns which thrive on the moisture seeping through the sides of the gap.
We knew we were in for something special when we saw this view of the bay, the valley and gardens.

The grounds were the mid-1800s summer cottage of Queen Emma, wife of King Kamehameha IV, and the former home of Robert & John Allerton. The Allertons purchased the property in 1938 from Alexander McBryde.

The garden is often called a garden paradise, transformed through time by the hands of a Hawaiian Queen, by a sugar plantation magnate, and most significantly by an artist and an architect. It is surely a masterpiece of garden art.


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Isn't it beautiful?




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We walked in awe through a series of garden rooms between the Lawa'i Stream and the cliffs of the Valley.




Pools, miniature waterfalls, fountains and statues combined with natural beauty to create a place that I personally didn't want to leave.

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There are pools, which have hand-made scallop shells, and are surrounded by the Elephant Ear and Birds'nest Anthurium.

You could see one of these French bronze mermaids in my post "I fell In Love".



Two of them are connected by a 126-foot channel with shallow steps.

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The sculpture of goddess Diana is overlooking a lattice-work pavilion.

This pomgranate tree is one of more than 75 fruit trees in a Victory Garden which was planted during World War II and has lychee, pummelo, mango, acerola, African bread nut and star fruit trees.

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A grove of swaying golden bamboo was so cool, inviting and serene that I wish I could have stayed there longer.

The history of the Allerton Garden is very interesting.

Polynesians were the first settlers here who arrived aboard voyaging canoes and cultivated taro and built fishponds (the remnants of the ponds still exist).

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a tropical plant grown as a vegetable food for its edible corm, and as a leaf vegetable. It is considered a staple in oceanic cultures and is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants.

We saw the cascading bougainvillea planted by Queen Emma on the cliffsides.

She also planted rose apples, Alexandrian laurel, mangoes, bamboo, pandanus and ferns, some of which still flourish in the Garden today.

If you visit the Allerton Gardens, say Hello to David, our guide, who came to Hawaii more than 40 years ago on his college spring break and made a home here.

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On the picture below, Aristolochia gigantea (Howardia gigantea).
Common Names: Giant Dutchman's PipeBrazilian Dutchman's Pipe

"It is a robust, twisting climber that can grow around a sturdy arbor or a tree up to 15-20 feet tall.
This vine has fleshy heart-shaped leaves and giant two-foot large flowers at least 6 inches wide. The flower is astounding, impressive, strange and sinister in the same time: it looks just like a giant beefsteak. The mouth of the pipe-shaped flower expands to a huge size and is colored with a maroon and white netting effect. In the “mouth” there is a central yellow spot where an opening leads into an enclosed pouch. The back view of the flower superficially resembles a pair of lungs with a canal leading into a stomach-like pouch. The blossom is over 14 inches (36 cm) long. These huge, lemony scented flowers bloom from summer until late winter". (Description of National Tropical Botanical Garden)



The National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG, http://www.ntbg.org/) is a not-for-profit institution, dedicated to discovering, saving, and studying the world's tropical plants and to sharing what is learned.

Thank you NTBG for the great opportunity to see and learn about this piece of paradise on earth! Yes, I became a member of the Garden.

More sculptures from the Garden are in my post I Fell In Love http://tanyasgarden.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-fell-in-love.html.