The beautiful New Zealand Christmas tree, Metrosideros excelsa, in the Strybing Arboretum of Golden Gate Park is also unusual. When we think of any kind of plant life, we picture roots growing under ground, some very deeply, with the tree growing above ground. But the New Zealand Christmas tree has a type of root system called aerial roots, which are a kind of entwined system that start above the ground, from a non-root tissue, then grow down toward the ground. At this point it develops the bark and grown into the ground as the root system. These trees in the park were originally part of the New Zealand exhibition for the 1915 Exposition, held in San Francisco. At the close of the Exposition, New Zealand did not want to have to recrate their 150 trees and ship them all back, instead offered them as a gift to the park, for which park superintend John McLaren was all to happy to accept. As enjoyed 25 September 2024.
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