Monkey Hand Tree in bloom in Fremont

Chiranthodendron pentadactylon http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/66985/ has been blooming for a few weeks, but I have been out of town. If you would like to come by and see it you can locate it at Rancho Arroyo Park at the bend in Montecito in the Niles District.
Facing the park, take the cement path on the left and it is the 2nd tree on the right. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=37.572476,-121.991463&spn=0.001482,0.00177&t=h&z=19
To locate this tree and more, visit http://www.fremontica.com/roadside/index.htm where you can locate trees by name (click heading to sort that column) http://www.fremontica.com/roadside/list.htm or by location (click an area of the map, or a heading above the map to narrow the search down) http://www.fremontica.com/roadside/usermap3.php?master=1
If you look at the list my ID number, the lower numbers indicate it's inclusion, beginning with a city project list in 1974. If the name is lined out, that means that the landmark tree is now gone. For a while the site replaced the photo of the landmark tree with the tree shredder, but I guess that did not make everyone happy. The city now requires a permit to remove significant trees. Although somewhat difficult to enforce, it is at least a step in the right direction.

Awesome George--thanks for sharing! I may wander down there this weekend and check it out! I have one of these but it's a tiny, tiny baby so I think I have many years to wait before it blooms.

Here's an interesting related plant--it's an intergeneric hybrid between Chiranthodendron & Fremontodendron: X Chiranthofremontia lenzii. I snagged this one at the UC Santa Cruz plant sale this spring.

That is one freaky looking bloom!
Very nice set up Fremont has there.

Fremontodendron is very appropriate ;-}
The Fremontica site is not a city sponsored site, it is a private site run by some real honest to goodness tree huggers here in town. I have a copy of the original report that was paid for by the City, then basically shelved and the whole concept ignored. It is sad that so many great historic trees have been lost over the years to development. The Amazon is not the only place loosing habitat.
If you do come over to visit this gem of a tree, take a few minutes to visit a hidden little park just down the street. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=37.5739,-121.986107&spn=0.001477,0.00177&t=h&z=19 for location of a parking lot, if you walk around the lake in a clockwise manner you will see several Bald Cypress with a resident turtle population. This is an old quarry location that has been made into a lovely habitat for all kinds of life and a tranquil location for us. Quarry Lakes is a much more barren portion of the same quarrying operation. It is operated by East Bay Regional Park, but the Niles Community Park is city owned and free to visit.