The First Lady of Limu: Isabella Abbott’s Seaweed Legacy

June 20, 2010

On this day, a remarkable woman drew her first breath - one Isabella Abbott, destined to become the first native Hawaiian woman to earn a Ph.D. in science and later crowned with the delightfully apt title "First Lady of Limu."

One might assume such a lofty academic would dedicate herself to something grand and imposing - perhaps towering redwoods or exotic orchids - but no, dear reader, her passion was far more humble yet infinitely more intriguing: seaweed.

As a child, young Isabella spent countless hours gathering this unassuming marine vegetation for her mother's traditional Hawaiian cuisine.

Who could have predicted that these humble beginnings would lead to such scholarly devotion?

In a most enlightening interview with Leslie Wilcox in 2008, Abbott revealed the true nature of her peculiar passion.

When questioned about her devotion to these slippery sea specimens, she confessed:

"There are so few of us [compared to] the thousands of people work on flowering plants.

Flowering plants mostly have the same kind of life history so they become kind of boring; they make pretty flowers and make nice smells, they taste good - many of them.

But, they're not like seaweeds."

With everyone you pick up, it does go through life a different way...

It's a game, it's a game I bet with myself the whole time from the time I cut it on the outside I say oh I think this might be in such-and-such a family or something like that, and by the time I get to some magnification on the microscope...

Oh, No. 100% wrong."

"So let's begin again."

One must admire such scientific persistence!

While most of us gardeners concern ourselves with the predictable cycles of our terrestrial plants, Abbott found endless fascination in the mysterious lives of marine flora. Her words offer a gentle reproach to those of us who might dismiss the common seaweed as merely slimy ocean debris.

Perhaps we should all take a lesson from the First Lady of Limu and approach our gardens with the same spirit of discovery. Imagine viewing each plant as a puzzle to be solved rather than a predictable annual performer!

What secrets might your garden hold if examined with such scientific curiosity?

The next time you find yourself growing weary of the same predictable bloomers, remember Isabella Abbott and her seaweeds, each with its unique life story, each presenting a new challenge to the curious mind.

For is that not the true joy of gardening - not merely the cultivation of beauty, but the endless opportunities for discovery?

For those wishing to witness this remarkable woman's enthusiasm firsthand, you may view the interview with Isabella Abbott in the Facebook Group for the Show: The Daily Gardener Community.