BEFORE AND AFTER
INDIAN BANYAN TREE - FICUS BENGHALENSIS

1975

Many of the grand Banyan Trees in Kapiʻolani Regional Park are Exceptional Trees protected by Act 105 by the Hawaiʻi State Legislature and regulated by the City Council and the County Arborist Advisory Committee.

Indian Banyan Trees were planted in 1922 to 1923 at Kapiʻolani Park. Thirteen-year-old Lowell Dillingham's summer project was assigned to him by his mother to plant these trees, as documented in the Exceptional Tree nomination form. The Exceptional Tree nomination application form was submitted by the Kapiʻolani Park Trust, Honolulu City Council in 1996. The Banyan Trees continue to be a major landscape feature at Kapiʻolani Park, providing shade trees for park users in the picnic areas.

Today, the original Banyan Trees at the Honolulu Zoo along the Monsarrat Avenue fence area, are still standing and they are believed to have been planted as part of the Makee Island landscape.