Melaleuca styphelioides prickly paperbark

Melaleuca styphelioides, Palm Drive. John Rawlings, 15 Jun 2005

A group of tall paperbarks planted by arborist Bill Parker in January 1970 can be seen on Palm Drive between Palo Road and the entry gates, on the east side. (An entry in Albert Wilson’s 1938 Distinctive Trees, Shrubs, and Vines in the Gardens of the San Francisco Peninsula (p. 95) suggests this grove is about 65 years older, however.) There is another on Stanford Avenue opposite Peter Coutts Road. The bark is furrowed and hard, the leaves are small and prickly and the flowers are creamy white bottlebrushes.

M. hypericifolia is undoubtedly growing on campus also. Melaleuca flowers and fruits resemble those of Callistemon but can be distinguished with a hand lens by noting that the stamens are not separate individuals but, at their base, are joined together in groups.

Melaleuca styphelioides branchlet from the Palm Drive grove, with leaves, flowers, fruit. John Rawlings, 15 Jun 2005

· Callistemon and Melaleuca: Key to Species

Name derivation: Melaleuca – Greek mela (black) and leukos (white) because some species of the genus have black trunks with white branches; styphelioides – hard, tough.