Environmental science major Laulea Miike BS’27 returned home to Kaua’i to study pollen germination at Hawai’i’s National Tropical Botanical Garden’s Seed Bank, where scientists are racing against the clock to preserve thousands of species endemic to the islands. 

Hawai’i’s flora is home to more than half of the nation’s threatened or endangered species, despite making up only 1 percent of the landmass of the United States.

Miike worked to find ways to bank seeds and pollen that scientists have previously struggled to conserve and that are not found anywhere else in the world.

She focused on Hawai’i’s endemic hōlei tree, whose pollen conservation physiology was previously unknown.Experts believe that only 150 hōlei trees remain. Through field and lab work, Miike discovered optimal conditions for preserving this species.

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