Melaleuca quinquenervia broad-leaved paperbark

Melaleuca quinquenervia at Cardenal. Sairus Patel, 20 Mar 2020

Thick, spongy sheets of pale bark peel off the trunk of this handsome tree. A single-trunked specimen is in the courtyard between Cardenal and Alondra. More than a dozen large ones line the southwest side of the Stock Farm Garage. More recently, several have been planted on Campus Drive East near Manzanita Field and Quillen Highrise.

Name derivation: Melaleuca – Greek mela (black) and leukos (white) because some species of the genus have black trunks with white branches; quinquenervia – five-nerved, referring to the leaves.