We spent one of our days on Maui exploring the upcountry area. My favorite place was the Kula Botanical Gardens. For several hours we strolled through the lush grounds, taking pictures and reading the names of the tropical plants.
These huge plants were at the entrance. I'm thinking they might be century plants, but they don't look as spiky as the ones I've seen on the mainland.
We parked in front of these giant trumpet flowers. The bushes were loaded with them.
We saw this Jackson's Chameleon through the bathroom window. They had another one in a cage, but it was more fun to find it outside, "in the wild".
It's hard to imagine that all of the Jackson's Chameleons in Hawaii originated from a Kane'ohe pet store owner who imported some from Kenya in 1972 to sell in his shop. He let them loose in his back yard and they have since spread to many of the other Hawaiian islands.
The Koi in the pond gathered close to the deck when Larry fed them crackers and cereal.
My favorite tree at Kula Botanical Gardens was this Banksia serrata which is also known as old man banksia.
A section of the trunk appeared to have a face looking out from inside the tree and he wasn't smiling!
The flowers on the old man banksia look something like a white bottle brush.
The banksia speciosa was a smaller tree with interesting flowers and rickrack leaves.
There were some lovebirds and doves in the aviary.
I'd like to know who posed for these woodcarving statues.
This one looks like an alien.
The King Protea has a huge flower.
Golden Protea have a totally different type of flower which illustrates why the proteas were named after the Greek god Proteus who could taken on any shape he wanted.
Proteas are native to South Africa and Australia.
Protea is the national flower of South Africa.
The black Protea has a soft, feathery texture.
You don't see black flowers very often.
These red proteas were swaying high above my head in the breeze. I had to climb up on a rock to get a picture of them.
The black-eyed susans made a nice covering on the trellis.
When I saw this plant, I immediately thought they looked like little rat paws. But, since they are from Australia, they were named Kangaroo's Paw.
One of my favorite trees is the Norfolk Island Pine.
I love the feathery, ferny look of the branches.
I don't know the name of this purple flower...at least, I know it isn't a protea.
Warren and Carolyn McCord started working on creating the Kula Botanical Gardens on January 15th, 1969. Opening day was scheduled for May1st, 1971, on May Day, of course!
This is one of the first post cards of the Kula Botanical Gardens from the 1970's. It certainly has changed.
Another strange and interesting flower that I didn't get the name of.
They had two gazebos in the gardens. People like to use them for weddings.
This succulent had extremely flat, steamrollered-looking leaves.
One last unknown, but pretty blossom.
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