While on his walks in Ala Moana Beach Park, my surf buddy Takeo Kudo mentioned he enjoys what he calls “living-in-the-ground bonsai trees.”
In a recent note to me, Kudo described the park’s Conocarpus erectus (or silver buttonwood tree) poetically:
“As a student of bonsai, I developed a deep appreciation for the trunks of trees … the trunk is the oldest part of a tree. In the trunk we can often see how it grew, the hardships it endured and the scars which give evidence of its long life. In bonsai — where we apply many techniques to shaping a tree — we quickly learn that while the newer growth in the upper part of a tree can easily be shaped and changed to our desired ends, the trunk is permanently ‘set’ in its shape and character.”
Kudo is particularly attached to “one buttonwood tree, located behind the bus stop approaching the Diamond Head end of the park.” He describes its trunk as “more impressive than any other I’ve encountered. … As it is approached, the shape and texture of its trunk becomes more visible. To my senses, this tree offers the ideal of quiet, unassuming beauty that becomes more and more apparent to the viewer who takes the time to experience it.”
Inspired by Kudo, my husband, Clark Leavitt, and I recently took a walk to find the tree. I knew about the silver-and-green buttonwood hedge around the tennis courts and McCoy Pavilion, but not the trees in the park. We found Kudo’s favored tree in the park across from Macy’s. Silver buttonwoods are epic trees, with a story worth telling.
In 1957, Paul Weissich had just become the director of the Honolulu Botanical Gardens. He reviewed the plants growing in the nursery and lath houses at Foster Botanical Garden. There he found a flat of buttonwood seedlings. Some were green and some were silvery.
He selected the “silveriest” of them and had them potted up into larger individual pots. The best and most consistently colored ones were selected, and more were propagated from air layers, resulting in a new generation of very silvery buttonwoods. This is an example of “horticultural selection.”
Silver buttonwood trees (also known as sea mulberry or button mangrove) grow naturally in mangrove swamps and are in the Combretaceae plant family.
They are very wind resistant, xeric (drought tolerant) and salt tolerant. This is critical for an environment like a salty, dry beach park — especially one like Ala Moana.
The bark and gnarly trunks of the silver buttonwood are very attractive, especially as the trees mature. You can make lovely lei with the leaves.
I reflected on all this history and beauty after my recent “walk in the park,” and thought about the future of our public spaces — and our irreplaceable trees. Trees are one of our island’s most valuable resources, although many of us take them for granted, thinking them of little value and easily replaceable. On the contrary, trees are a living green infrastructure, positively shaping our environment in ways too numerous to list here. Our Native Hawaiian ancestors understood this, and carefully stewarded our precious native trees.
With climate change and warming trends, our local trees are struggling to adapt. They need more regularly scheduled maintenance and careful pruning to keep them in good health, and this means their stewards need more training and better resources to ensure they survive to serve future generations. I have high hopes for Laura H. Thielen, the city’s new parks director, and her able deputy, Michele Nekota. I encourage our leaders to raise funding for parks, so they can fulfill the kuleana they have accepted.
I also invite you to take a walk in Oahu’s parks or botanical gardens. Study a tree and see what it tells you. Sit under one and breathe deeply. Let’s all embrace and cherish our public spaces and their legacy trees; they are a gift to us all.
Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.
