Imagine this: a tiny berry, plucked from a Japanese mountainside, hitching a ride inside a bird, crossing\u00a04,000 miles\u00a0of the Pacific, and landing on newly risen Hawaiian soil. Millions of years later, that berry becomes the\u00a0\u02bb\u014dhelo\u00a0\u2014 a red-fruited wild blueberry treasured by native Hawaiians, feeding birds, shaping ecosystems, and holding deep cultural meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s\u00a0exactly what scientists at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) and the University of Florida discovered in a new study published in the\u00a0American Journal of Botany,\u00a0according to a release.Using DNA sleuthing, they traced Hawaii\u2019s blueberries not to North America, as long assumed, but to temperate East Asia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0specifically Vaccinium\u00a0yatabei, found only in Japan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a rare pattern among Hawaii\u2019s native plants,\u201d said Dr. Peter W. Fritsch, co-senior\u00a0author\u00a0and BRIT research scientist. \u201cOnly 4% of Hawaiian plants are estimated to have come from temperate East Asia, whereas most arrived from North America or tropical regions.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The berries\u2019 journey began 5 to 7 million years ago, when migratory birds carried seeds across the ocean, planting them on\u00a0Kaua\u02bbi\u00a0as it\u00a0emerged\u00a0from the sea. Pre-adapted to wet, cold climates, the plants thrived at high elevations, later colonizing lava flows on the youngest island, Hawaii, where almost nothing else can grow. And the story keeps going: some plants spread to Southeastern Polynesia, hybridized with distant relatives, and DNA evidence hints that a few may have even traveled back to North America \u2014\u00a0a nearly unheard-of\u00a0reverse migration. Scientists now suspect 15 to 18 distinct Hawaiian blueberry species await formal recognition, far more than the three currently known.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Closer to home, Fort Worth residents\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0need to\u00a0travel\u00a0oceans to experience nature\u2019s surprises. The Fort Worth Botanic Garden is opening its\u00a0120 acres\u00a0of curated landscapes with multiple free admission days this November. Veterans Day kicks things off Tuesday, Nov.\u00a011, thanks to Amazon, followed by H-E-B Texas Recycles Day from Friday, Nov.\u00a014, through Sunday, Nov.\u00a016, where guests can earn free entry by bringing a clean, dry plastic bottle or bag. For those who want music with their flora, the Garden\u2019s final Blooms & Beats concert of 2025 lights up Friday, Nov.\u00a014, with Nicholas Patrick performing live in the Horseshoe Garden, food trucks on hand, and a cash bar to sip under the stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whether\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0wandering Fort Worth\u2019s gardens or following a\u00a0blueberry\u2019s\u00a0epic journey across oceans and volcanic soil, both experiences are a reminder of the resilience, surprise, and quiet beauty that nature delivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine this: a tiny berry, plucked from a Japanese mountainside, hitching a ride inside a bird, crossing\u00a04,000 miles\u00a0of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":369774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,12043,7371,77732,7372,9730,26922,159,2803,358,7453,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-369773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arts-and-culture","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fort-worth-botanic-garden","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-fwtx-staff","14":"tag-plants","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-seeds","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-top-story","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115526896532084027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}