By Ian Bell • Twitter: Ian_Bellio • January 2020

This page highlights the top five most common genera of tree in the city limits of San Franciso, according to the City of San Francisco tree census.1 All the information on this page was generated from the city database. Click the points on the maps below to explore individual species in each genera, sizes (expressed as inches in diameter at breast height (DBH)), and dates planted.

1. Fruit Trees (Prunus)

Cherry Photo: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons

Cherry Photo: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons

The most common type of tree in San Francisco are fruit trees of the genus Prunus. These include many types of fruit trees, including ornamental species. According to the data, there are 15164 trees of this genus in the city limits. The oldest tree of this type on record in the database was planted in July 1969 and is 52.5 years old. Trees of this type are dense in the areas of the city around Twin Peaks, such as Noe Valley, the Castro, and Forest Hill.

Fruit Trees in SF

2. Platanus

English sycamore Photo: Maatpublishing [CC BY-SA]

English sycamore Photo: Maatpublishing [CC BY-SA]

Some of the most common species of the Platanus genus include the London plane and American sycamore. According to the data, there are 12194 trees of this genus in the city limits. The oldest tree of this type on record in the database was planted in February 1956 and is 65.9 years old. These trees line some of the major streets in the City of San Francisco, such as Market Street, California Street, and Van Ness Avenue.

Platanus Trees in SF

3. Fig Trees (Ficus)

Ficus Tree Photo: Forest & Kim Starr [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

Ficus Tree Photo: Forest & Kim Starr [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

The third most common genus of tree in the city is Ficus, more commonly known as Fig trees. According to the data, there are 9831 trees of this genus in the city limits. The oldest tree of this type on record in the database was planted in March 1956 and is 65.8 years old. The northeast portion of the City near the Financial District has many Fig trees.

Fig Trees in SF

4. Pittosporum (Cheesewood)

Victorian Box tree Photo: Friends of the Urban Forest

Victorian Box tree Photo: Friends of the Urban Forest

Some of the most common species of the Pittosporum genus in San Francisco include the Victorian Box and Karo tree. These are flowering trees, and are known as Cheesewoods. According to the data, there are 9532 trees of this genus in the city limits. The oldest tree of this type on record in the database was planted in October 1955 and is 66.3 years old.

Pittosporum Trees in SF

5. Tristaniopsis (Myrtle)

Water Gum tree (*Tristaniopsis laurina*) Photo: Eug / Wikimedia Commons

Water Gum tree (Tristaniopsis laurina) Photo: Eug / Wikimedia Commons

The fifth most common genus is Tristaniopsis, which is in the myrtle family. One of the more common species in San Francisco in this genus is the Swamp Myrtle. According to the data, there are 8994 trees of this genus in the city limits. The oldest tree of this type on record in the database was planted in November 1969 and is 52.2 years old. These trees have a broad distribution around the city.

Tristaniopsis Trees in SF

R Markdown Code used to produce this webpage can be viewed here.

This is fun product for #TidyTuesday, a weekly social data project focused on using R programming language tidyverse packages to clean, wrangle, tidy, and plot a new dataset every Tuesday. Thanks to Yan Holtz and his Pimp my RMD: a few tips for R markdown for helpful tips.

  1. DataSF Street Tree List https://data.sfgov.org/City-Infrastructure/Street-Tree-List/tkzw-k3nq↩︎