The Valentine tree

The heart shape pods

The heart shape pods

The heart shape pods

Ahh Valentine day is here again, and it’s time to celebrate love. Markets, shops and online shopping sites are flooded with gifts of chocolate, jewelry, cards and roses. 

In Nature, it is a time when winter ends and footsteps of spring are evident everywhere. Having shed the leaves and being bare most of the winter, it’s a time for regeneration and rejuvenation of the trees.

During my walks through Ala Moana park, I came across a beautiful tree, laden with big red fruits. 

The heart like shape and red color of the fallen fruit pod on the ground, made me instantly name it ‘the Valentine tree’.

The heart shape pods

After exploring further, here are few details of the tree.

In reality, the tree is called skunk tree as during the brief flowering season it does have an unpleasant, pungent smell that can be smelled from quite a distance. 

The Latin name is Sterculia foetida. Other common names include Java olive, kelumpang, bangar and Indian almond. It is a large deciduous tree native to East Africa and Northern Australia. The leaves are large, palmately compound with five to seven leaflets.

Courtesy: UH manoa Botany deptt.

the flowers

The flowers are cup shaped, wine red in color and grow in clusters near the tip of horizontal branches. Flowering season peaks from January- March and once done they are replaced by pear shaped, attractive fruits. The fruits are segmented, green and woody, but soon turn to eye-catching, bright red color, then dry to a brownish-black. As they ripen, the fruits split open along a seam, revealing many elliptical, inch-long, pearly-blue seeds that spill out onto the ground. The open segments look a lot like woody, valentine-heart-shaped bowls.


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The seeds in the pods

The eye catching red colored pods

The eye catching red colored pods

The fruits, leaves and bark have many medicinal properties. The seeds can be eaten raw or roasted.

The skunk tree at University of Hawaii, Manoa campus is on the list of Exceptional Trees maintained by the City and County of Honolulu. The Exceptional Tree Act, was passed in 1975 in wake of rapid development on the island which led to destructions of many historic trees.

The beautiful tree 

As per the state website, “The Act recognizes that trees are valuable for their beauty and they perform crucial ecological functions.” The act mandates an approval permit is needed to prune them or do other maintenance work.