MAYOR HANNEMANN UNVEILS NEW BUTTERFLY GARDEN

Mayor Mufi Hannemann today announced the opening of the new Butterfly Garden at the City’s Foster Botanical Garden.

“This is a wonderful new addition to the garden, and I welcome everyone to visit and enjoy it,” Mayor Hannemann said. “This beautiful botanical garden is truly an urban oasis that we’re very fortunate to have. The Butterfly Garden makes it even more special.”

Mayor Hannemann said he had been in strong support of such a butterfly sanctuary since he visited a similar garden during an official visit to Okinawa two years ago.

Honolulu’s Butterfly Garden was established by the Butterfly Society of Hawaii with the City’s assistance, and will provide a home to many of Hawaii’s 17 butterfly species.

“I would like to express my appreciation to Butterfly Society President Jerrold Fuller and his wife Niki and all the ‘Garden Angels’ for coming forward in a true public-private partnership to make this a success,” Mayor Hannemann said.

Mayor Hannemann also commended Winnie Singeo, Director of Honolulu Botanical Gardens at Foster Garden, for providing space for this new resource.

The new garden is an outdoor, open-air butterfly habitat garden that encompasses 3,600 square feet.  It will serve as a living classroom to educate children and adults about the interdependence of life between butterflies, plants, and people.

Butterflies are important natural pollinators of plants, producing fruits and seeds.  The U.S. is home to about 700 different species of butterflies. Hawaii, geographically isolated from other land masses, is home to only 17 species, including two native species: the Kamehameha butterfly and the Blackburn’s Little Blue butterfly.

Butterflies have good color vision, and the new garden is planted with over 2 dozen different plants (including native Hawaiian plants) arranged by color:  red, orange, yellow, purple, and purple/yellow.  The plants provide food for the caterpillars and nectar for the butterflies.

Volunteers are helping to maintain the butterfly garden; they get to work in a great environment, enjoying the beauty of both the garden, and the butterflies.  

Foster Botanical Garden is located at 50 N. Vineyard Boulevard, Honolulu

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Contacts:

Bill Brennan, Mayor’s Office, 527-6928;

Jerrold Fuller, president of the Butterfly Society of Hawaii, 373-4200