The Skunk Tree of UH Manoa

Once a year part of the University of Hawaii's Manoa campus starts to smell like a stable, and it takes people a while to work out why. The source is this one. Sterculia foetida flowers once a year, the flowers stink for about three weeks, and the Latin means foul-smelling; the campus calls it the skunk tree. A library staffer told the student paper that on a hot, humid day the smell settles into the open space and sits there. Richard Criley, emeritus professor of tropical plant and soil sciences, was kinder: this is one of the sort of tree that calls attention to itself. When to catch it is not settled. The Ka Leo O Hawaii feature that put all this on the record in 2019 has it blooming around that May, while other accounts give a January to March window, so pick your month at your own risk. Nobody has dated the tree either. The city register gives a trunk 2.9 metres round on a tree only about 7.5 metres tall, condition good, and no age at all. Nor is it perfectly clear which tree. The register puts its entry near George Hall. The same student feature describes two skunk trees on campus, one by Sinclair Library and one beside the Architecture Building, and names neither as George Hall. All of those stand a few hundred metres apart, so the pin sits on George Hall and says approximate. In flower, your nose will settle it.