I did a bike trip to Angel Island today, not thinking I would see a lot of tree diversity. As expected, the island is full of coast live oaks, toyon and the occasional California buckeye and California bay. But what I didn’t expect was to find some unusual specimen trees near the Angel Island Immigration Museum.

To get to the immigration museum, you head downhill from the Perimeter Road at a point on the northeast part of the island. On the walk down, on your left you’ll see a couple of stately spotted gums (Corymbia maculata).

Continue down the road to the open area below the museum, and to your far left is a large bunya bunya tree tree (Araucaria bidwillii), native to Australia. Bunya bunyas are rare in San Francisco, and one of our best was just cut down in West Portal at Vicente and Wawona, so this was a welcome sight.

bunya bunya tree (*Araucaria bidwillii*)

At the other end of the clearing near the museum is a close relative of the bunya bunya - a Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria heterophylla), also large and mature. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were planted at the same time.

And in between the two Araucaria, facing the water, two Canary Island date palms (Phoenix canariensis).

Angel Island used to be full of blue gum eucalyptus trees (Eucalyptus globulus), but 80 acres of eucalyptus were removed in the 1990s - among other things, they were thought to be a fire hazard that created risk for the nearby historic buildings. However, there are still beautiful specimens of this tree to be found around the island.

blue gum eucalyptus (*Eucalyptus globulus*)

And lastly, the most common tree on the island - coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia).