I’ve been telling myself it’s only a tree. But it seems to be a lot more.
Lahaina, Maui has been home to a massive banyan tree for decades. It’s said to be the second largest Ficus benghalensis in the world, and it spreads over an entire block on Front Street, just steps from the Pacific Ocean.
Planted 150 years ago, this handsome, romantic, shady tree has witnessed wedding proposals and probably a few break-ups. It’s thick vines have been swung on by kids for generations, and its multiple trunks carved into far too many times by visiting lovers. Still it’s grown. And grown some more.
I first came to know the Banyan Tree when our family visited Maui in 1968. Even as a 12-year-old kid, I was transfixed by the trunks and drooping vines. I’ve sat on benches under that tree dozens of times, and it never gets old.
The fire that destroyed almost of this funky, historic town two weeks ago badly singed the tree. But some arborists think it can be saved.
WYMT news reports that crews are aerating the tree to try to protect it; creating large holes and slices in the soil around the tree to help air, water and nutrients penetrate the ground.
“Right now, there’s still life under every one of the roots and in the mainstream,” said arborist Steve Nimz. “So, that’s where our hope is. Then the rest is up to the tree.”
Others say the tree is in a sort of floral coma, and that it might be four to six months before we know her fate.
The tree was planted in 1873 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission on Maui. It was gifted by missionaries from India and planted on April 24 of that year at the request of queen Keōpūolani when the monarchy still ruled Hawaii, according to BeatofHawaii.com.
The historic Banyan Tree in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii before the fire. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The website reports the tree is 60-feet tall, with a canopy spread of 1.94 acres and a circumference of a quarter of a mile. It has 64 major trunks.
It’s just a tree. But when so much of the city has been destroyed, and so many lives lost, people are looking for any positives they can find.
“It’s such a large and iconic tree, but it’s also a meeting place and shelter. Kids can run under the shade of the tree while the parents sit around and talk. It’s a safe and happy place where undoubtedly romance is made,” Winston Welch, executive director of the Outdoor Circle, a conservation organization in Hawai’i, told Scientific American. “It’s all of those things for Hawai’i.”
“The fact that it still stands at the Lahaina harbor brings hope to a community starting to heal from its incomprehensible losses,” Beat of Hawai’i states.
If it lives, “it surviving in the heart of the town would certainly be an image as well,” Kimberly Flook of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation told Scientific American,
Symbols are important, and the Banyan Tree has been a symbol of Lahaina for more than a century. If it can be saved, it will be treasured perhaps as never before.
