The Geometry Tree of Ala Moana Beach Park

Ala Moana Beach Park has roughly forty banyans planted for its 1937 Banyan Garden, and one tree in the park belongs to none of them. Officially it is a Black Olive, Bucida buceras, but it earned its nickname, the Geometry Tree, from the way it grows: branches stack outward in flat, level tiers rather than the tangled shape most trees settle into. Some Black Olives are pruned hard to force that look; this one has done most of the work on its own. The species is native to the Caribbean and Central America and arrived in Hawaii as a landscaping ornamental, prized for exactly this tiered habit. The City and County of Honolulu designated it an Exceptional Tree under the state's 1975 tree-protection law, recording a trunk just over three metres round and a crown reaching about fourteen metres, rated in excellent health at its last survey. Ala Moana itself has been public land since the 1930s, built from reclaimed wetland into Honolulu's busiest beach park, free to enter every day between four in the morning and ten at night. No ticket, no gate, and the tree stands among the park's open lawns rather than off any marked path, worth hunting down once you know the odd, stacked shape to look for.