Nucleation mechanism of catalyst-free GaN nanorod grown on Si(111) is investigated by the fabrication of uniform and narrow (andlt; 35 nm) nanorods without a pre-defined mask by molecular beam epitaxy. Direct evidences show that the nucleation of GaN nanorods stems from the sidewall of the underlying islands down to the Si(111) substrate, different from commonly reported ones on top of the island directly. Accordingly, the growth and density control of the nanorods is exploited by a "narrow-pass" approach that only narrow nanorod can be grown. The optimal size of surrounding non-nucleation area around single nanorod is estimated as 88 nm. ; Funding Agencies|Academia Sinica and National Science Council in Taiwan||Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) in Sweden, KA Wallenberg||MEXT through Grant-in-Aids for Scientific Research (A) in Japan|21246004|