The Coconut of Waiolama Canal

This shoreline was named for coconuts a century before anyone thought to register one. Waiolama's older name is Waiolama Niu, niu meaning coconut, and an 1864 chant already sings of the coconut grove of Piʻopiʻo standing on these banks, now inside the Wailoa River State Recreation Area. A local history of the area describes the mid-1800s shore as luxuriant with coconut trees, so whichever specimen the state's exceptional-tree register singles out today stands where a much older grove once did. It has survived worse than time passing. Hilo's tsunamis of 1946 and 1960 tore through this exact stretch of shoreline, and local accounts credit the coconut, banyan and mango trees along the canal with saving lives, people caught in the wave climbing into their limbs and holding on until the water dropped. The register lists this palm's condition as good and its owner as the State of Hawaii, inside what is now a 132-acre park. Nobody has measured its girth or dated it, and a coconut palm would not tell you either way, it carries no growth rings. The register also does not say exactly which trunk along the canal it designated, so look for a mature, substantial palm near the water rather than a marked one, and if you know which it is, tell us.