Foster Botanical Garden, Botanical garden in central Honolulu, United States

Foster Botanical Garden covers 13.5 acres (5.5 ha) at 50 North Vineyard Boulevard, near the intersection of Nu'uanu Avenue and Vineyard Boulevard in urban Honolulu. Its Upper Terrace holds the oldest plantings, with Middle Terraces for palms, aroids, heliconias and gingers, an Economic Garden of herbs, spices, dyes and poisons, the Prehistoric Glen planted in 1965, and the Lyon Orchid Garden. The photograph shows a broad pale-trunked tree at left, a massive dark gnarled trunk at right, tall palms with fan-like fronds behind, and a small dark-roofed building among lower trees and bushes.

In 1853 Queen Kalama leased 4.6 acres to German physician and botanist William Hillebrand, who built his home and planted trees on the site; many large trees on the Upper Terrace are his plantings. After 20 years he returned to Germany and published Flora of the Hawaiian Islands in 1888. In 1884 Thomas R. and Mary E. Foster bought the property; Mary Foster bequeathed it to Honolulu in 1930 as a public tropical park.

A small replica of the Kamakura Daibutsu marks 100 years of Japanese immigration to Hawaii, and a memorial stone stands where Oahu's first Japanese language school once operated; an anti-aircraft shell struck its auditorium during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The garden also holds Bob Flint's 1977 ceramic sculpture 'Sandwich Isle' and Charles W. Watson's 1974 sculpture 'Tree'.

Visitors can explore different garden sections throughout the year and should wear comfortable shoes as the terrain is hilly with paved walkways. Early morning is the best time to visit when it is cooler and less crowded.

The garden contains a Sacred Fig tree that is a direct cloned descendant of the Bodhi tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment. This remarkable tree links the space to one of the world's oldest spiritual traditions.