I noticed this Day Lily while I was driving and was moved to return and take some photos. I liked how the flowers stood out in the tangle of roots of a very large Banyan tree.
A splash of color
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Tag Archives: Banyans
Hawi
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘In Your Town.’ See more responses here.
I’ve run a couple of Hawi scenes already this past week (here and here) and another earlier in this year (here). But here are a few more scenes from Hawi town.
Kohala Coffee Mill is a social meeting place with coffee, excellent local ice cream, and good food.
Across the street, the Bamboo Restaurant is a popular local restaurant which hosted farmers market stalls during the Covid times (I know, they’re still going on.).
The banyan trees are where the farmers market used to be held every Saturday, and is a popular rendezvous spot. Everyone knows where they are.
Across from the banyans is Nakahara Store, a small local grocery that’s been around a long time.
Hawi is an arty place and some arty types express themselves on their vehicles!
Abstracts: Banyan tree
A look up at the tangled limbs and canopy of a banyan tree.
Posted in response to Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Trees.’ See more responses here.
Abstracts: Banyan tree
A view looking up into a banyan tree. Banyans can grow to a huge size with multiple trunks and hollow interiors, and every tree has a different look.
Under the banyan trees
I could have used this photo for last week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘In Your Town,’ but it also works for this week’s theme of ‘Traditions.’ (see more offerings here.)
These two giant banyan trees are half a block up from the main highway through downtown Hawi. Each Saturday, a farmers market is held on the grassy area beneath these trees. That event is part grocery shop, part social gathering.
The rest of the week, the location is the traditional meeting place for the area, particularly for people carpooling. If someone says to meet under the banyans, or at the banyans, the location is immediately understood.
Abstracts: Rainbow Falls banyans
The main attraction of Wailuku River State Park, in Hilo, is Rainbow Falls. But at the top of the hill are these huge banyan trees.
Banyans are not just a huge sprawl of branches, but a sprawl of roots, too. As epiphytes they begin life growing on other trees, from seeds dispersed there by birds. Over time, they send roots down to the ground, known as prop roots, which help support the mass of branches.
Banyan trees are also known as strangler figs because their roots and branches will ultimately overwhelm the host tree and kill it. Eventually, the dead host will decay and leave a hollow center to the banyan tree that’s left.
By continuing to send down prop roots, banyans grow out as well as up. Very old trees can cover a huge area. For example, the Great Banyan Tree in Kolkata, India is more than 250 years old. Its covers around four acres and has more than 3,500 prop roots. Here in Hawaii, the largest banyan grows in Lahaina on Maui. Planted in 1873, it now has 16 main trunks and covers two thirds of an acre.
The Rainbow Falls trees aren’t that large, but they’re coming along nicely.
Better Days: Waipi’o boat
This old boat hull lies peacefully below the spreading limbs of what I think is a banyan tree on the road to Waipi’o beach.
Graham's Island 