Callistemon brachyandrus prickly bottlebrush

Callistemon brachyandrus flowers fade, Stanford Avenue. Sairus Patel, 17 Jul 2022

Callistemon brachyandrus fruit, Stanford Avenue. Sairus Patel, 7 Jun 2022

A shrubby plant with prickly, needle-like leaves and orange-red bottlebrush flowers in spikes about 2 inches long – smaller than those of its showier cousins on campus (brachy-andrus denotes the short stamens).

Stanford’s sole plant is sprouting from a stump at the edge of the greenbelt path on the west side of Stanford Avenue, about 40 yards north of the cross-path to Santa Fe Avenue. It was grown from seed collected from a plant introduced by arborist Dirk Schroder around 1962 on Serra Street near the Recycling Center, then part of a screen for the nursery there.

Callistemon brachyandrus. John Rawlings, ca 2005

· Callistemon and Melaleuca: Key to Species

Illustrations: branchlet 20 Jun 2005, Stanford Greenbelt.

Name derivation: Callistemon – see C. viminalis entry; brachyandrus – see text above.