The flower buds are round and covered with brown, velvety down. This same down also covers the young growth and the midrib of the leaves. Individual flowers have five crepe petals of about the same size. The larger, triangular heads of bloom, are made up of smaller clusters. The reddish brown pods which follow the flowers remain on the tree for a long time. They are thin and flat and hold three or four seeds. The leaves are bipinnate, composed of many small rounded leaflets. There is no period when the tree is bare.
This tree, a member of the legume family, is a native of Malaya and the East Indies. It grows widely in Honolulu, with several fine specimens in the grounds of Iolani Palace. ([Plate III])
MONKEYPOD TREE
Samanea saman (Bentham) Merrill
Those huge, wide-spreading trees—the largest trees in Honolulu—which in spring and summer are often covered with a thin film of pink flowers, are Monkeypod trees. Stately and massive, with rough, dark bark, the branches of these trees support a rounded canopy of leaves. It is a single layer thick and casts a light shade over an immense area of ground. There is a giant specimen in Moanalua Gardens; others grow in front of the Library of Hawaii, and traffic passes around another great tree in the middle of Vineyard street, near Nuuanu.
The flowers are like short tassels made up of tufts of silky, pink stamens. They grow on short stems in bunches near the ends of the branches, and cover the tree lightly during the spring and summer. They are followed by the thick, dark, pods, which hang on the tree until the following spring. Leaves are compound in structure, made up of opposite pairs of pointed leaflets which fold together in the late afternoon. The leaves fall in spring, and, together with the drift of falling flowers, which comes a little later, and the hail of old seed pods, give the Monkeypod the name of being the dirtiest of Hawaii’s trees. Owners who never finish sweeping up under them always remark, however, that the beauty of the giant tree is worth the trouble.
This tree is a legume, a native of Central America and the West Indies, where its native name is zaman, from which its scientific name is derived. ([Plate IV])
BOTTLEBRUSH TREE
Callistemon lanceolatus De Candolle
Long, cylindrical spikes of red flowers, very like the round brushes used to clean test tubes or bottles, have given its common name to this tree. The effect is created by tufts of red stamens. In most varieties the flower spikes grow upright, but on some, as shown on [Plate IV], they hang in swaying pendants. Their color is a fine, pinkish red, which contrasts strikingly with the greyish green of the foliage. The latter is narrow, pointed and fine.
The tree belongs to the Myrtle family and is a native of Australia. It is not yet very common in Hawaii, but examples may be seen on the University of Hawaii campus near Dean Hall. ([Plate IV])