Brachychiton acerifolius Illawarra flame tree

One of the Inner Quad’s two Illawarra flame trees in full bloom. The entire canopy bursts into bloom only every few years. Sairus Patel, 20 Jul 2017

Brachychiton acerifolius leaf silhouette. Frontispiece of the book Trees of Stanford and Environs by Ronald Bracewell

Glorious in bloom, aflame with clusters of small scarlet bells intensified by the shedding of surrounding leaves, the flame tree has been a presence in the Inner Quad since Stanford’s earliest days. One planted in the outer northwest island in 1890 flourished for more than a century, earning a spot on the cover of both The Stanford Magazine (Fall/Winter 1978) and Professor Ron Bracewell’s Trees of Stanford and Environs (2005). It was reported to flower in May and June. After its removal in 1998, a replacement was immediately planted in the same spot, and by 2003 had reached over 20 feet in height and 9 inches in diameter, blooming from late June into August. That same year, another was installed in front of the church, in the inner southeast island. It quickly rose through the canopy of neighboring trees, taking on a more spire-like habit than its sibling.

Early European collectors in eastern Australia wrote in wonder of these shapely trees rising, flaming, from the brush. One can imagine their astonishment. “A large Flame-tree in full bloom is a noble and gorgeous sight, and is calculated to impress the most phlegmatic person with the beauty of our flora,” wrote Joseph Maiden in The Forest Flora of New South Wales (1922). He noted that in cultivation, only a portion of its canopy blooms, certainly true of our specimens. The older tree achieved full-crown flowering in 2013, 2017, and 2020; in 2025 the upper two-thirds was in full flame. The younger tree has had a good run of magnificent bloom across several successive years. As with the ginkgo’s golden fall, the flame tree’s waxy red flowers form a long-lasting carpet below, a spectacle in its own right.

Front cover of the 2005 book Trees of Stanford and Environs, featuring the Illawarra flame tree in the Inner Quad, circa 1950s. Photographer unknown; transparency given to Ronald Bracewell by the late Stanford arborist William Parker. The image has been retouched.

The leaves, large as your hand, are variously shaped, with 3–5 lobes or no lobes at all; the species name means with leaves like maple (Acer). Clusters of black, boat-shaped pods (follicles) dangle from the branches, each lined with seeds neatly arrayed in rows within.

The tail end of the Inner Quad jacaranda’s bloom sometimes overlaps with the flame trees’ floral cycle; capturing both purples and reds in the same photographic frame, given their dispersed locations, is a seasonal challenge worth attempting. The orange-gold of a silky oak’s bloom could be an interesting complement too, though it coincides more with the jacaranda’s earlier bloom season.

Another Inner Quad flame tree, this one in the inner southwest island, was described by botanist Albert Wilson in 1955 as the better of the two then present. By 1973, however, no tree of the species was recorded there. A 1984 mention, likely of a replacement, noted a specimen “severely broken.” An image of this island’s flame tree has yet to be found. In 2023, a young specimen entirely covered in deeply lobed juvenile leaves was planted east of Lantana, near the underground garage entrance. A 2003 planting behind the memorial bench at the perimeter of the Arizona Garden did not survive the depredations of trunk-chewing squirrels; it was removed after five years.

Name derivation: Brachychiton – from Greek, brachys, short and chiton, a tunic, a reference to the coating on the seed; acerifolius – see text above.