University of Hawai'i University Relations Media & Publications Honolulu, HI 96822	(808) 956-8856 Telephone (808) 956-3441 Facsimile ur@hawaii.edu E-Mail
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:	June 20, 1997
Contact: Cheryl Ernst, (808) 956-5941

University of Hawai'i's Lyon Arboretum receives national award The Harold L. Lyon Arboretum at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa has received the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta's 1997 Arboreta Award for Program Excellence. The association is the professional organization for botanical gardens in the United States and Canada. It has 400 institutional and 1,500 individual members, two of whom nominated Lyon Arboretum for the award for its work in micropropagation of endangered Hawaiian plants. The micropropagation program is supported entirely by various grants and gifts and is staffed by two student assistants and 35 volunteers under the direction of Dr. Gregory Koob. It is the largest and most successful program of its kind in the United States, having successfully propagated more than 100 species of rare Hawaiian plants. Lyon Arboretum is the only university arboretum in a tropical rainforest and may have the largest palm collection of any botanical garden in the world. The 194 acre facility also participates in the 28 member Center for Plant Conservation, a national non profit organization that coordinates work on conservation of endangered plants throughout the United States. University of Hawai'i President Kenneth P. Mortimer and Senior Vice President for Research Dean O. Smith presented arboretum Director Charles Lamoureux with a commendation during today's Board of Regent's meeting. The commendation reads:   The University of Hawai'i congratulates the Harold L Lyon Arboretum for successfully using micropropagation techniques to grow more than a hundred endangered Hawaiian plants&emdash;considerably more than any other program in the country&emdash;several of which have been used successfully in approved reintroduction projects; for coordinating a team of volunteers, ages 14 to 70, who have spent hundreds of hours each month in a creative program to rescue Hawai'i's most endangered plants; and for receiving the 1997 Arboreta Award for Program Excellence from the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta in recognition of its achievements in thisfield. Presented to Arboretum Director Charles Lamoureux on this 20th day of June, 1997.