This tree was on the road up to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden in Kane'ohe, HI. The small delicate flowers, maybe 1.3cm, produce tough claw-shaped fruits around 3cm long that contain red angular seeds attached like peas. The claws seemed to be in pairs or trios.
Something of Apocynaceae, perhaps a Tabernaemontana species. http://www.flickr.com/photos/72793939@N00/4394133753
Great hint, Tyrlych. Thanks. Some of the photos on google search for Tabernaemontana orientalis look like this one, and others do not. The one photo I found somewhere that looks most like my photos was identified as Tabernaemontana sp. Maybe I should let it go at that. I'm way ahead of where I started.
No, I was told there that that the only one of the five Honolulu Botanical Gardens to have a botanist is Foster BG, in Honolulu, and there I was told that the botanist only knows the Foster Garden. I have her contact info, will ask some questions and see if she's able or willing to get answers for plants in the other gardens.
Surely they all have planting records and some kind of information center. Otherwise, what are they good for? Maybe the scene has deteriorated in recent years but I've visited Hawaiian collections for decades and not found them particularly inaccessible. Sure, not every specimen is labeled but you see that most places, the Seattle arboretum being exceptional in this regard (although the pretty much 100% labeling long enjoyed by users of that facility seems to have fallen off lately).
I've emailed people at two gardens and not had a reply yet. This is a very special place we have here on the UBCBG forums, where people with no credentials like me can get the attention of faculty and staff from the garden and also of so many other knowledgeable people.
