Tristaniopsis laurina water gum

Tristaniopsis laurina on Welch Road near Pasteur Drive. Sairus Patel, 24 Jul 2020

An elegant, slow-growing small tree with elongated, laurel-like leaves that give rise to its species name, laurina. From the leaf axils arise groups of ¼-inch yellow flowers in July, making for an attractive display. The small, dry capsules and peeling bark are reminiscent of eucalyptus. Its native range includes waterways, in which it can attain great heights (hence “water gum”), but on drier areas it may remain shrubby.

Five well-established 12-foot trees grow beside the sidewalk at 1180 Welch Road near Pasteur Drive. Perhaps inspired by those, younger ones were planted in 2013 in small groups in the median strips on Welch Road, from that spot to Quarry Road, during construction of the new Stanford Hospital and Packard Children’s Hospital. A row on the east edge of Manzanita Field is looking somewhat unhappy. Five trees once noted on Campus Drive south of the Visitor Center in 2005 are no longer present.

Three lush specimens of ‘Elegant’, a cultivar with larger leaves and an occasional red leaf, stand in a planter on the east end of the east courtyard at Knight Management Center.

In Palo Alto, a fine example may be seen at 1820 Cowper Street. A beautiful multitrunked specimen at 1441 Edgewood Drive was removed in 2019.

Name derivation: Tristaniopsis – Jules Tristan (1776–1861), French botanist, with Greek opsis (likeness), referring to the similarity to Tristania; laurina – see text above.