Just in time for Prince Jonah Kuhio Elementary School’s 125th anniversary celebration next weekend, a campus shower tree is in full bloom.

“Our stinky pod tree by the cafeteria has turned into a beautiful 30-foot pink shower tree,” Principal Evelyn Aczon Hao wrote in the school’s Kuhio Bulletin. “It is in full bloom right now."
Kuhio School, of course, was known for another tree — a 90-year-old monkeypod that had to be cut down in 2007 because it had become diseased.
It had provided shade, a natural playground and a quiet place for reflection for generations of students.
Many faculty and past students said the tree’s demise was like the passing of an old friend.
While a new monkeypod now grows in its place, it is the ugly-sapling shower tree that has, well, blossomed.
“After suffering through a period of ugly and stinky, beasty pods, the tree is now rewarding us with such beauty,” Hao wrote.
“It seems the tree is celebrating with us.”
Kuhio School’s 125th anniversary will be observed May 30 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on its campus at 2759 S. King Street.
There will be cultural booths, the Kuhio children’s song fest, ethnic foods from Moiliili restaurants, historical displays and entertainment by the Royal Hawaiian Band and Frank DeLima.