(0) A Website of Horticulturally Important Plants on the University of Hawaii Campus

Abstract

The University of Hawaii at Manoa campus offers a rich diversity of plants for students, university personnel, and the public. Although providing botanical facts, a current university web site and an arboretum brochure about campus plants lack horticulturally related information. By highlighting the unique horticultural plants on campus, a web site would provide valuable information on the uses, care, and propagation of these plants. The purpose of this project was to develop a web site featuring horticulturally important plants on campus. The home page explains why plants are beneficial in interior spaces. Other sections of the web site include basic plant care, plant selection, plant names, and plant pictures. Basic plant care covers planting media, containers, watering, lighting, fertilizing, pruning, propagation, and pest control. Users can select plants using two criteria—lighting in the plant's desired location (low, medium, and high) and low plant maintenance. Information on a specific plant is accessed by common name, scientific name, or a plant's picture. Each plant's web page provides details on its background, care, and propagation. By emphasizing the important horticultural plants on campus, this web site helps students, university personnel, and the public select and grow plants for their dormitories, apartments, offices, and homes. In addition, users gain knowledge about the lush landscape environment on campus. Lastly, the web site enhances the learning experience of students in horticulture and botany courses, serves as a resource for K–12 students for their visits to the campus to learn about tropical plants, and aids tourists in planning a more informative visit to campus to see the plants they learned about on the web site.