McBryde Garden/National Tropical Botanical Garden

Something we didn't do during our 2009 Kauai visit was tour the McBryde Garden/National Tropical Botanical Garden. There are certainly larger tropical gardens we have seen--many free and open to the public--but the McBryde features perhaps the largest collection of plants native to Hawaii. (Very little of what one actually sees here).

Main building/gift shop

Weird tropical fruit

The whole place is a couple hundred of acres, up from a
beautiful cove

More weird tropical fruit

South Florida, where I was born and raised, is loaded with

tropical vegetation; but Hawaii has the best hibisci

Vineyard, sort of

Staghorn fern, like one my mother had (until it was stolen)

Oozing orchid

Who can resist orchids?

Who can resist orchids, 2

Who can resist orchids, 3

An heron looks for lunch in the stream, surrounded by
papyrus

Mapplethorpe plant

Lipstick plant