It's a Jungle Out There

The third Saturday of every month is "Ohana Day" at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens, which we found out is the equivalent to FREE. We decided to take the $20/person tour for the afternoon, and it was lovely. I don't know that we can recommend visitors pay for the experience, especially if they plan to do a lot of hiking, but it was a terrific free excursion.

We toured the McBryde Garden, which contains 171 acres of wild-collected plant specimens, many which are endangered. We had our exhausted little guy with us, which meant we didn't come away with superior plant knowledge (sorry, Dad), but here are at least some pretty pictures!

This plant was unique for it's green-on-one-side, striped-on-the-other appearance.
The spider lily:
The Bamboo Bridge, which you can usually walk on (made entirely of bamboo, if you can't tell from the title and picture), but it was closed yesterday:

Part of the "Canoe Plants of Ancient Polynesia" area:

One of our favorites: these flowers are tiny:

The "beefsteak heliconia":

This is a plant living within another plant:



I told Brady I wanted these flowers instead of roses next time:

Cacoa:

African Tulip:

Catepillar-like plant:
Overlooking Allerton Gardens, which we'll see next Ohana Day:

My favorite plant:

We followed up the hot afternoon with snorkeling and pizza. A perfect little day for our family.