Love Affair with Tahiti and Tattoos

Nails in Penises

It seems odd to have a botanical garden inside a botanical garden but that’s what we have here. These gardens were created by an American man named Harrison Willard Smith. He was from Boston and came to live permanently in Tahiti in 1919. I was looking up the year that Smith arrived in Tahiti and one of the first things to come up about him was a picture of a boy in Borneo with a nail through his penis. It’s not as bad as it sounds (or maybe it is as bad as it sounds, I’m not an expert in these things). However, it appears that this is a perfectly natural cultural practice in Borneo. Mr. Smith was known as ‘Borneo Smith’ by the time he got to Tahiti.

Big and Hot

I was only able to explore 1/4 of the place because it is so big and the tropical heat is so hot. And, Moe was sitting in the car waiting for me. She had more important things to do on her phone. Right? Travel more than 6,000 miles to sit in a hot car and look at your phone…

The Mape or Tahitian Chesnut Tree. Harrison Smith called them “the grandfather of trees”. Polynesians had many uses for them. The roots are so beautiful.

I explored for two hours. The plants are overpowering. They are big, healthy, and bursting with beauty and aroma. Most of them I was familiar with. There were 3 or 4 I had never seen before.

How about this fine, fancy thing? I wish I knew what it was. I will continue to search.

Invasive Bird Species on Tahiti

This little bird posed for his picture next to an orchid in the botanical gardens. He is a Red Vented Bulbul native to Pakistan and China. In Hawaii, he is a pest. He chases other birds away from food and eats orchid blooms in Oahu costing tons of money for the orchid industry.

Forest Royalty

Ah, the mighty ficus! In this case, the Banyan tree. The roots are like trees themselves reaching two stories. And all this because a bird dropped a little seed on top of a completely unrelated tree; the seed germinated and this ficus eventually grew into something majestic. It would suit forest royalty like wood nymphs and fairy kings and queens to live in the hallowed halls of the Banyan arms.

More roots. Only not as grand as the Banyan. They are terrestrial.

View of the landscape.