How to find the 'X' in Golden Gate Park, An A to Z Adventure

When I was writing Golden Gate Park, An A to Z Adventure, I was determined to find a really unique story or thing for the letter ‘X’.

I ended up with both! The ‘X’ in the book is X Chiranthomontodendron lenzii. This is a tree also known as hybrid monkey hand tree. Lucky for me and the book, it turns out the scientific name of plants that are hybrids starts with an ‘X’!

The hybrid monkey hand tree is a combination of the monkey hand tree (Chiranthodendron pentadactylon; also known as the Mexican hand tree) and California Flannelbush (Fremontodendron californicum).

The monkey hand tree was grown — get this — in Montezuma's garden in the Aztec Mountains in Mexico (and you can find it in the San Francisco Botanical Garden as well).

You can read more about it here, and more importantly you can find it on the edge of the Great Meadow in the San Francisco Botanical Garden. There is currently just one tree, but happily it’s in bloom for ~8 months a year.