Brahea armata Mexican blue palm

Inflorescences and infructescences fountain out of the Brahea armata in the Inner Quad. Sairus Patel, 22 Aug 2021

Brahea armata, Inner Quad. Irene Beardsley, 20 Mar 2003

A spectacular sight when in full bloom: creamy plumes of flowers fountain above and beyond the crown of handsome, fan-shaped, silvery blue leaves, sometimes cascading to the ground on younger trees. It is curious that campus has only a single specimen of this remarkably drought-tolerant tree, planted in 1998 in the inner southeast island of the Inner Quad, six feet tall in 2002 and about 18 in 2025, first blooming in 2009. A taller specimen is at 346 College Avenue in Palo Alto; another is at 3575 La Mata Way.

The leaf stalk of B. armata bristles with its eponymous armature: stout, hooked teeth about ¼ inch tall. The genus honors Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), an ancestor of Professor Ronald Bracewell. Additional specimens would be well suited to other Inner Quad islands, which offer ample space for their extravagant floral display as well as unobstructed angled sunlight on summer evenings, allowing the plumes to be backlit against the warmth of the sandstone arcades and gold tesserae of Memorial Church.