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Albizia moluccana

Native to the Moluccas, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, this whitish-barked tree with fern-like foliage was introduced to Hawaii by botanist J. F. Rock in 1917. Fast growing, reaching heights of over 100 feet and aesthetically distinctive, albizia seemed like an ideal species for reforestation planting early on in the process of anxious sugar plantation planning. Managers wanted to save the overburdened watershed on which the sugar depended quickly at that time, and albizia grew quickly indeed. Doubling as a light-timber tree, albizia was planted in the Halawa area between 1920 and 1922. Spreading naturally, specimens have grown to measure 62 inches in diameter and are firmly based in a large network of roots. One Kohala Zipline platform is built into an albizia.

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