Melaleuca quinquenervia broad-leaved paperbark

Melaleuca quinquenervia at Cardenal. Sairus Patel, 20 Mar 2020

Thick, spongy sheets of pale bark peel off the trunk, making this one of the most tactile trees at Stanford. The elongated leaves are larger and broader than most other melaleucas, with five veins running their length, hence quinque-nervia. Creamy bottlebrush flowers complete the picture. The species is much maligned, however, as an aggressive colonizer of the Florida Everglades.

A single-trunked specimen is in the courtyard between Cardenal and Alondra. More than a dozen large ones line the southwest side of the Stock Farm Garage. More recently, several have been planted on Campus Drive East near Manzanita Field and Quillen Highrise.