The Trees of Golden Gate Park and San Francisco

A little more than a hundred years ago, the San Francisco landscape was mostly sand dunes, meadows, marshes, and rocky outcroppings. Only a scattering of native trees, mostly windblown and stunted, grew naturally. Early city and park planners, bent on creating a magnificent city, transformed this sparse, fog-swept landscape by planting trees from around the world—trees selected especially for their beauty and adaptability to the city's climate.

The Trees of Golden Gate Park is based on the writings of botanist Elizabeth McClintock, whose column on the trees of Golden Gate Park was a feature of Pacific Horticulture magazine for twenty-five years; it presents the reader with the stories of 170 different trees found in the park and throughout the city. Detailed maps and elegant line drawings of leaves, flowers, and fruit make it a useful field guide; extensive descriptions of the biology, lineage, and horticultural history of the trees make it essential armchair reading for everyone who wishes to deepen their knowledge of San Francisco and the unique urban treasure known as Golden Gate Park.