Syzygium smithii lilly pilly

Very similar in appearance to the closely related and much more widespread Australian brush cherry (S. australe), this upright evergreen tree of the eastern Australian rainforests comes into its own during our winter. The fruits, conspicuous, apple-shaped, edible berries more or less ½ inch across and ranging from pale lavender to purple, are thickly clustered among the glossy leaves and drop with the winter rains to form a dense, richly hued carpet under the tree. A purported specimen behind Building 110 may simply be a particularly abundantly-fruiting and large-leaved individual of S. australe, several of which are nearby. The white flowers of the lilly pilly are considerably smaller than those of S. australe; a definitive identification will be made when flowers are available.

Landscape architect Thomas Church used lilly pilly in many of his Bay Area gardens designed in the 1950s and later, often shaped or sheared, but only Eugenia myrtifolia (an older name for S. australe) is noted in his plans for Stanford gardens, none of which covered the courtyard of our purported specimen.

An example of lilly pilly in the San Francisco Botanical Garden just west of its Friend Gate has fruits a breathtaking pale lavender to rose.

Name derivation: Syzygium – Greek, yoked together; Acmena (the synonym) – Latin, said to be one of the names of Venus; smithii – honors English botanist James Smith. “Lilly pilly” presumed to be of Australian Aboriginal origin.