Banyan tree in Lahaina, Historic banyan tree in Lahaina, United States.
The Banyan tree in Lahaina is a fig on the island of Maui that has spread more than 60 branches and grown nearly 60 feet tall. Roots drop from the limbs and form new trunks that carry the heavy canopy of leaves.
A sheriff planted the seedling in 1873 to celebrate a church anniversary when the plant stood just under two feet tall. The fig grew over the decades into one of the largest living trees of its kind on American soil.
The name refers to a fig species from Asia that merchants brought from India and planted in this new environment. People gather beneath the limbs to talk, listen to music, or simply sit in the shade.
The park sits right by the harbor and can be reached easily on foot from surrounding streets. Visitors find benches and open spaces under the spreading branches that offer shelter from the sun.
The descending roots anchor into the ground and become new trunks, so a single tree looks like a small forest. More than a thousand people could fit beneath the leaf cover if they stood close together.
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