New Zealand Christmas trees (Metrosideros excelsa), known as pōhutukawa in their native New Zealand, love San Francisco’s cool maritime climate - and they’re in full bloom right now (early July - a little bit late this year!). New Zealand Christmas trees are in the myrtle family, and are relatives of the eucalyptus and other trees with “bottlebrush”-type flowers (what you’re seeing in the flowers are not petals, but the male stamens of the tree). Almost all of the thousands of New Zealand Christmas on the streets of San Francisco have red blooms, but there’s one tree at 1221 Stanyan Street in Cole Valley that puts on a show with eye-popping yellow flowers.

How did this tree end up with yellow flowers? The story goes back to Victor Reiter, San Francisco’s most famous plantsman from the 1940s until his death in 1986. In 1940, there was a natural mutation of the species on tiny Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. Reiter was one of the first Californians to obtain a cutting - from a friend who happened to be visiting New Zealand. As the Reiter family lived in several homes in a three-block stretch of Stanyan Street, they planted the curiosity in front of their 1221 Stanyan address—still occupied today by a family member. And more than 70 years later, the tree is thriving. It’s a beautiful mutant with an amazing history and pedigree—and my favorite tree in San Francisco.