You might be driving past them everyday and not even know it.

I have to admit, when I told people I was doing a story about trees and poetry, I got some funny looks. But Hawaii has more than a thousand trees that are so exceptional, they're protected by law. And how can you do a tree story without a couple of haikus?

Hawaii has it's famous trees; the giant banyan in Lahaina, Koloa's mahogany tree tunnel, and Oahu's symmetrical monkeypod, the Hitachi company icon. But it's a relatively unknown specimen that's believed to be the state's oldest.

Along the Kona coast, a simple orange tree planted around 1792 in what's now Margaret Schattauer's front yard.

"I always heard about it through the generations," said Schattauer.

As the story goes, the English doctor Archibald Menzies gave orange seedlings to chiefs to provide citrus for returning sailors to ward off scurvy. This was one of a dozen that took root.

Schattauer's family has lived here since the 1800's. Protecting the tree and sharing it's harvest.

"I never climbed up there, there's too many thorns... But my brother and my cousins would... And I'd catch em as they threw them down to us," remembers Schattauer.

And she still makes marmalade from the fruit.

"Mmm.. That's good," said Schattauer.

Schattauer's 216 year old citrus is one of more than a thousand registered exceptional trees in Hawaii going into an unprecedented new database with a state grant.

UH botanist Dr. Michael Thomas has visited almost every site to get the GPS coordinates for a website he's unveiling this week.

"I think every tree has a story to tell... Some are obscure treasures like this mini forest of native palms at the top of Molokai's Huelo Island. Some are hidden in plain sight like this cannonball tree next to a UH bus stop planted by Pulitzer Prize winner Thornton Wilder," said Dr. Thomas.

Others are simply stunning to look at.

Queen Lili'uokalani loved nature and some of the trees she's believed to have planted at Washington Place are still there, including this huge Pili nut from Malaysia with ridges of roots up to six feet tall.

"It is one of the most magnificent trees here in Honolulu," said Washington Place curator Corinne Chun Fujimoto.

The curator has letters, written by the queen, about her collection.

"One day I had the curiosity to know how many variety of trees there were in this garden," wrote Queen Lili`uokalani.

On her list of plants, the nut tree comes in at number 16. My how time has changed while her majesty took inventory.

These days, exceptional tree owners can take tax cuts. Three thousand dollars tax deduction for pruning, watering, care and love. No kidding. It's right there on your N-11 state tax form, line 17.

Of course, many exceptional trees are on public land. Including what's believed to be the state's largest historic coconut grove at Kapua'iwa Molokai. More than ten acres planted for Kamehameha IV.

The site with the most celebrity ties? Banyan Drive in Hilo with trees planted by Babe Ruth, President Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Amelia Earhart.

In search of the largest trunk in Hawaii, we took a tape measure to the Queen's Medical Center. Twenty-six years ago, this African baobab, also known as the dead rat tree, measured 18 feet around. At the time it was a US record. Now about 150 years old, the trunk has nearly doubled in size.

"35 feet one inch," said KGMB9's Keahi Tucker.

But check this out.

"People walk by these kind of trees everyday and they don't see em."

Emerging from the side of the UH Art Building we found a monstrous baobab.

"It's a big one!"

With a circumference of 45-feet six inches, easily a new U.S. record.

"Ho... That's a humongous one!"

Big fat trunk, stunning
Passersby, a record girth
Unknown, till measured
And this one's not even on the exceptional list.

Dr. Thomas expects that to change, adding yet another specimen to Hawaii's record registry.

"In the united states there is no place that rivals the diversity of trees," said Dr. Thomas.

Kind of like Hawaii's people, don't you think?

"Through diversity there's a lot of strength you can gain, not only from a biological perspective but strength of a community."

A lesson from nature… to appreciate something that's all around us, whether you know it or not.

Related Links:

• Exceptional Tree Law & Outdoor Circle's Efforts
• Tree Haikus by Kathryn Waddell Takara, Ph.D.
• Unprecedented new database of registered exceptional trees in Hawaii - www.hawaiitrees.org
• Outdoor Circle, conservation group working to protect environment since 1912 - www.outdoorcircle.org
• And if you'd like to submit your own tree haiku, click here to e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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