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November 3, 2009
Something that still bothers me...
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San Diego was just so beautiful that words can't describe it. Nothing does it justice. If you've followed this erratic, pedantic, delusional website for any length of time then you've no doubt seen some of the photos from San Diego, including many of the flowers I encountered there.
Now, keep in mind that I'm not concerned so much with whether or not the flowers are indigenous species, or non-native weeds. When I stumbled into San Diego back in April, I began, by necessity, a crash course in the taxonomy of the flora because I just had no words to describe what I was seeing.
I'd drive around town, and stop to interrogate anyone I saw gardening, assuming, right or wrong, that they must have some information which would help me on my Quixotean quest for enlightenment.
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The thing that has sort of bothered me for some time is that I never was clear as to the taxonomy of the brilliant red flowers that I see at the San Diego International Airport/Lindbergh Field. And it's not like you wouldn't notice them. They bloom pretty much all year long and there's an 8 foot high wall of them when you walk out of the airport from Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 (I never flew out of the Commuter Terminal.)
As I began to get a handle on the plants blooming around me, I initially assumed the flowers were from the Red Bottle-Brush Tree (Callistemon citrinus) of the family Myrtaceae, which is native to Australia.
However, as time went on, I began to notice that the flowers, although similar, were not exactly shaped like the flowers of the red bottle-brush tree. They actually looked like similar to the flowers of the Melaleuca nesophila, of the same family (Myrtaceae).
So, tonight, I did some digging around and, at first, I thought that maybe what I'm seeing at the airport is an espaliered version of the Red Bottle-Brush tree. But then, upon further investigation, I now believe that what I'm seeing is of the genus Metrosideros - possibly (Metrosideros polymorpha or Metrosideros macropus).
Update: This flower is the Red Powderpuff.
Posted by Rob Kiser on November 3, 2009 at 5:44 PM
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