Safeguarding Native Plants and Inspiring Visitors

The National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) promotes sustainable tourism by offering enriching, low-impact experiences that connect visitors with our unique flora and cultural heritage. We strategically work to prevent plant extinction through monitoring, collecting, propagating, and conserving Hawaiian plants in our seedbank and living collections. However, numerous threatened species remain unprotected in ex situ holdings across the state. This project aims to identify, collect, and propagate seeds and cuttings from priority native species absent from collections. We will implement advanced invasive species management to safeguard these collections. Investments from green fees would allow us to connect people with a broader variety of bioculturally significant plants in our interpretive trails. Further, these plants provide resilience in the short term to our streams and coastal lands and in the long term by maintaining seed sources for ecological restoration projects.