Na 'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens
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Na ‘Āina Kai Botanical Gardens (240 acres including forest and farmland) are nonprofit botanical gardens located at 4101 Wailapa Road, Kīlauea, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi. A variety of guided tours are offered Tuesday through Friday; an admission fee is charged for each.
Na ‘Āina Kai was established by Joyce and Ed Doty in 1982. In 2000 it became a nonprofit organization and opened to the public. Today it contains 13 gardens, a hardwood plantation, farmland, meadow, canyon, and beach. More than 70 bronze sculptures are sited throughout the estate. Highlights of the gardens include:
- Bog House - several carnivorous plant species, including butterworts and pitcher plants.
- International Desert Garden - cacti, succulents, and other desert plants including aloe, agave, a tamarind and several baobabs.
- Poinciana Maze - a hedge of 2400 mock orange plants, with topiary and sculpture.
- Shower Tree Park & Ka'ula Lagoon - hibiscus, ixora, firecracker flowers, and fiddlewood trees, with lagoon, waterfall, and Japanese-style teahouse.
- "Under the Rainbow" Children’s Garden - pond, treehouse, train, log cabins, bridges, tunnels and slides.
- Wild Forest Garden - heliconias, gingers, noni, ylang ylang, cardamom, vanilla, and ornamental bananas, as well as nutmeg and cinnamon trees.
The hardwood plantation (110 acres) contains African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon), African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis), big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), blue mahoe (Hibiscus elatus), Caribbean pitch pine (Pinus oocarpa), cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa), Indian blackwood (Dalbergia latifolia), Indian rosewood (Dalbergia sissoo), iroko (Chlorophora excelsa), lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale), mahogany (Swietenia mahogani), Moreton Bay chestnut (Castanospermum australe), narra (Pterocarpus indicus), palu (Manilkara hexandra), pau ferro (Caesalpinia echinata), pheasant wood (Andira inermis), Queensland maple (Flindersia brayleyana), rainbowbark (Eucalyptus deglupta), sandalwood (Santalum album), teak (Tectona grandis), West Indian cedar (Cedrela odorata), and zebra wood (Astronium graveolens)
