The Moreton Bay Fig
Mei Ling Hui

In January 2006, the City legislated a process for designated and protecting the best of our City's trees. This monthly series aims to highlight these trees.

The Ohio born Hubert Howe Bancroft, who was called the first historian of the West, was held in dubious regard by many of his colleagues for much of his career due to his lack of citing the sources from which he gathered his material. He was eventually accepted by his peers and became the President of the American Historical Association. While living in California, Bancroft maintained a library on Valencia Street in San Francisco, a collection that he eventually sold to UC Berkeley. The site of his former library became St. Luke's hospital, where plaque stands today in his honor.

A picture of this library that was taken in 1925 shows a tree growing in front of it, roughly 20-30' tall. This tree, a Moreton Bay Fig or Ficus macrocarpa, has grown to be one of the most spectacular trees in our City. This historical fig's magnificent buttressing root system is a favorite feature of this tree. They wind beautifully around the garden on the side of the hospital, creating something akin to natural retaining walls. The canopy's large dark leaves cast dappled shadow over the entire garden area and set a striking contrast to the light colored bark. Its stature is exceptionally large, especially for our City where an estimated 51.4% of trees have a trunk diameter of less than 6 inches. The well loved fig's many outstanding characteristic have lead to it's being featured in several books and other publications and to it's being honored by the Urban Forestry Council and the Board of Supervisors with Landmark Status in March of this year.