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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Sunday, October 28, 2001

Hawai'i Gardens
Weeping fig tree is graceful but fragile

By Heidi Bornhorst

Weeping fig trees shade the lawn of McKinley High School. The Hale Koa grounds also have several of these attractive trees.

Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

The weeping fig or Benjamin banyan is one of the most beautiful and graceful of all the banyans.

William Hillebrand, an accomplished botanist, introduced the first Ficus benjamina to Hawai'i. Hillebrand was the first haole planter of Foster Botanical Garden. He was also royal physician and the first director of The Queen's Hospital.

During the dengue fever outbreak of the 1940s, the two large Benjamin banyans at the Foster Botanical Garden were sprayed with diesel oil to discourage mosquitoes. Sadly, the oil weakened the trees. Years later, held up only by a thin ring of cambium, they blew down in a storm.

Paul Weissich, director emeritus of the Hawaii Botanical Garden, recounted how Mabel Babcock, the original docent for keiki at Foster Botanical Garden, would teach kids to love trees. "Come over to the grandmother trees and sit upon their knees," she would encourage the children. There was a spreading buttress root for every child to seat on.

Most ficuses are very tough and can take a lot of abuse. Unfortunately, this is not true of the Ficus benjamina, said Steve Nimz, the father of modern Hawaiian arboriculture. Nimz said the Benjamin banyans do not store starch well. They don't compartmentalize wounds as well as the other ficus do. They are beautiful and perhaps merit a bit more care than your average ficus, he added.

Nimz, working as a consultant, helped us during the reconstruction and re-landscaping of the Hale Koa Hotel to protect and maintain the trees. There were several nice Benjamin banyans on the property. At one point, we thought they would all die. They were in such bad shape. Only through the heroic work of the Hale Koa landscaping crew did most of the trees survive.

One of the most prominent examples on O'ahu of the lovely weeping fig tree is at Roosevelt High School, on Nehoa Street, between 'Auwaiolimu Street and Mott Smith Drive. This majestic tree with a broad canopy has given shade and shelter to generations of high school students. Besides, its striking silhouette is a joy to those walking or driving by. It helps highlight the architecture of the school building and makes for a shady entrance to the historic school. This tree was recently nominated to be an Exceptional Tree by the mayor's Arborist Advisory Committee. If the tree is granted this honor, it would give it the recognition it deserves and the protection it needs.

Ficus benjamina also is a house plant, both here and in temperate climates where the plant's tropical look and feel is used for interior landscapes at shopping malls, hotels and offices.

One important thing to note with potted banyans: DO NOT change the light they get. Don't move your expensive and lovely banyan outside to catch sunlight when you mostly keep it in the shade. When buying one, ask the grower or nursery what kind of light it got. Maintain the same level of light. Some of the leaves will fall when you first take the tree home. Don't panic. Keep watering the tree. Also, if you keep the tree in the shade, don't add fertilizer. Plants in dark areas don't grow much, eliminating the need for fertilizer.

Heidi Bornhorst is director of Honolulu's botanical gardens — Foster, Lili'uokalani, Wahiawa, Koko Crater, Ho'omaluhia. Write to her care of The Advertiser Homestyle section, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Or e-mail islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com.