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Seen in the beautiful and lush Hawai‘i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden on Onomea Bay north of Hilo on the big island of Hawai’i.

Dan Lutkenhouse Sr., founder of the Garden, discovered the Onomea Valley while on a vacation to the Big Island of Hawai’i in 1977. On his retirement from a California business, he and his wife purchased 17 acres just for its beauty and seclusion. But once he began exploring their new property he decided to preserve the valley forever and undertook the work of removing the overgrowth and the weeds and other invasive species. With no formal botanical training, using only hand tools to avoid disturbing the environment or destroying valuable plants and tree roots, Lutkenhouse and an assistant spent every single day at the work until the park opened in 1984.

It took years of careful clearing of the jungle before he discovered one of the crown jewels of the Garden – Onomea Falls, a three-tiered waterfall said to be the most beautiful in all Hawaii.

Even after the gardens opened, for the next 17 years, Lutkenhouse continued to cultivate, collect and plant over 2,500 tropical and subtropical plants, both native and species from around the globe. Over 100 of these species were personally procured on plant collecting trips to countries as far as Madagascar.

Source: htbg.com/about/

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