For generations, the banyan tree along Lahaina town's historic Front Street served as a gathering place, its leafy branches unfurling majestically to give shade from the Hawaiian sun. By most ...

A banyan tree rises among the Wildfire wreckage, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. For 150 years, the colossal tree shaded community events, including art fairs.

Some see it as a symbol of colonialism and the loss of Native Hawaiian rights. William Owen Smith planted the banyan in 1873 ...

For 150 years, the colossal tree shaded community events, including art fairs. It shaded townsfolk and tourists alike from the Hawaiian sun, befitting for a place once called “Lele,” the ...

A banyan tree rises among the Wildfire wreckage, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. For 150 years, the colossal tree shaded community events, including art fairs.

For 150 years, the colossal tree shaded community events, including art fairs. It shaded townsfolk and tourists alike from the Hawaiian sun, befitting for a place once called “Lele,” the ...

Like the town itself, the survival of Lahaina's 150-year-old banyan tree is now in question, its limbs scorched by flames that have wiped away generations of Hawaii history.

Overhead, cars were whizzing by. Also overhead were the gleaming floor and art-adorned walls of the newly opened Banyan Tree Puebla. Puebla is a city built above a network of secret tunnels.

A banyan tree stands along Lahaina town’s historic Front Street in February 2018. The 150-year-old tree was scorched by a devastating wildfire that started Tuesday, and tore through the heart of ...