By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Brian Schatz looks over native Hawaiian plant
seedlings that will be transplanted to an area known
as Rocky Hill behind the school.

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Punahou cultivating
native garden

An area above the school is
slowly becoming a nursery
for Hawaiian species

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

A weed-infested area above Punahou School is about to become a garden of Hawaiian plants.

Volunteers have worked hundreds of hours to clear and restore the spot for Hawaii School Yard Habitat, part of a program of the National Wildlife Federation, said Sean Casey, a coordinator with Youth for Environmental Service.

The 10-acre site overlooking the Punahou campus is owned by Punahou School and is called Rocky Hill.

A nursery was abandoned some years ago, but with volunteer efforts it's a nursery again, Casey added.

"The surrounding vegetation they want to restore to native vegetation."

Less desirable species such as koa haole, cat's claw, Christmas berry, kiawe and night-blooming cereus are growing there now, Casey said.

The goal is to replace these things with such dry-land native plants as ilima, koa and wili wili trees and mao (Hawaiian cotton), he said.

Brian Schatz, the other Youth for Environmental Service coordinator, explains the top of the hill is used as a Punahou base yard.

He called the nearby nursery a greenhouse and said it was being stacked with native plants that will gradually be set out in nearby cleared land. It might take a decade to replant the entire parcel, Schatz said.

"This will hopefully be full of botanical specimens," he said. "Kids and community members can learn about this neighborhood and, hopefully, Hawaiian plants."

The site is overgrown with much koa haole now. "It's a horrible weed," Schatz said.

Dozens of kids working every Friday afternoon have brought about substantial improvement, and some native plants already have been placed in cleared land, he added. Schatz pointed out some hala and ilima recently planted.

"Everything in this garden was grown either from seeds or from cuttings," Schatz said.

He praised volunteer handiwork. "They built this bench, which I think is cool, and we really needed this bench," he said.

In the modest structure called a greenhouse, he pointed to a native hibiscus plant and some young wili wili trees, also young koa trees. "They'll get big," he said. "They're very hearty."

"I'm really pleased with the Punahou administration for trusting us to pull this off," Schatz said.

Working volunteers come to the site from Youth for Environmental Service, Punahou School, Conservation Council of Hawaii, University of Hawaii and elsewhere.