Red flowering gum (Corymbia ficifolia) in front of Mission High School on 18th Street near Dolores

When my brother Mark from upstate New York visited me in July a couple of years ago, I still remember driving with him on a street in the Mission, when he asked, “What’s THAT tree”??!! July and August in San Francisco is the time when red flowering gums (Corymbia ficifolia) are out in spectacular bloom. Brilliant red or orange, pink or white - the tree’s flowers come in many colors, and the blooms present in large inflorescenses that can often cover most of the tree’s crown. Red gums cannot be easily reproduced from cuttings, and when reproduced from seed, nature rolls the genetic dice, so the flower color won’t necessarily match that of the parent tree. Large, smooth and woody seed capsules (which look like the bowl of a pipe) form after the flowers, and hang onto the tree for many months, often until the next year’s flowers are in bloom. Red gums are well adapted to San Francisco’s cool coastal climate, and they thrive almost everywhere in the City. In fact, the largest red gum in the United States is in San Francisco’s St. Francis Woods neighborhood, at the corner of Monterey Boulevard and Junipero Serra Boulevard. The native range of the red flowering gum is a very small area in western Australia, southeast of Perth.

Sadly, the City has virtually stopped planting these magnificent trees - very very few of them have been planted in the last decade. Why? Because they have very wide trunks, require a big sidewalk cut, and probably also because they eventually require more maintenance than other trees (as most big trees do). But those aren’t good reasons to stop planting red flowering gums entirely - there are plenty of places in the City with enough room for Corymbia ficifolia. Let’s not give up on this these magnificent trees!