Waimea Valley Audubon Center

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Waimea Valley Audubon Center.

The Waimea Valley Audubon Center, formerly known as the Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden, is a botanical garden located at 59-864 Kamehameha Highway, Haleiwa, on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. It is open daily except for Christmas and New Year's Day; an admission fee is charged.

The garden is located in Waimea Valley, long an important center of Hawaiian religion, and includes stone terraces and walls of historic interest. Much of the garden floor was once cultivated for taro, sweet potato, banana, etc., with new crops and orchards introduced by Europeans after their arrival. Today's garden was previously managed until 2003 by the City and County of Honolulu, when management was assumed by the National Audubon Society.

The garden now contains 35 distinct collections, representing some 5,000 taxa from around the world. It contains one of the finest collections of Polynesian plants in existence, as well as excellent collections of very rare Hawaiian plants, rare and endangered species native to Lord Howe Island, and individual gardens dedicated to plants from Guam, Madagascar, the Mascarene Islands, the Ogasawara Islands, and the Seychelles.

Other major collections include the hibiscus evolutionary garden, araceae, bauhinia, bromeliaceae, heliconia, liliaceae, as well as bamboo, begonia, ferns, tropical fruit, etc.

The garden valley is approximate 0.75 miles in length, with a small waterfall and swimming hole at the valley's high end.