LA Palm Trees

[Barcelona60]

Thank you all for providing great sensible responses to a simple question.

LA is just not LA without the palms.

[DinoVabec]

I agree...

[lawmann]

Originally Posted by losangelino

You'll have to take it up with the folks at the Living Desert Museum (they actually said that the trees grew here in prehistoric times so much farther back than what you are referring to) as well as my back yard which is full of them. Trust me, when I bought my house they were not there and those there now are the exact trees in those photos.

I don't need to. Just look at any pre1900 outside photos of Los Angeles and not a fan palm in sight but there are plenty of oak and other types of trees. Then look at photos of Los Angeles during the early decades of the 1900's and you will see a few short ones that looks like they were just planted. You can find early photos of Los Angeles in the Los Angeles public library photo collection. Here I made it easy for you
http://catalog1.lapl.org/cgi-bin/cw_...tedTerms+18821
if you can find just one pre1900 photo of Los Angeles with a fan palm growing out of the ground then I might believe you.

[losangelino]

Originally Posted by Barcelona60

Thank you all for providing great sensible responses to a simple question.

LA is just not LA without the palms.

I just got back from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Wow! I'll post some pics of the buildings and density found there soon.

Someone there told me that many of the Palms you see are actually imported from California. There were so many different varieties that I've never even seen here in LA so clearly if this is true it is only a certain type of palm they bring in. Also if this is true then how does that reconcile with some of the things being said here about shortages and them dying off? Does anyone know if this is true?

[redspork02]

Some Pics I took of some Palms:

[Barcelona60]

Thanks you so much for the pics!

See, this is what I miss about LA too. Sounds silly to some but its as much LA as the beaches, cityscape and most of all the insane people! Love it!

[ajhare]

Originally Posted by jacobboyer

Palm tree's make Los Angeles cool. Oaks are grown in every other city and there ugly compared to palms. Oak trees will grow pretty ugly in los angeles poor soil.

The palm trees were imported from the tropics in the 20th century so there not native and oaks are native to the area

[Middle-Island]

^The palms in post 65 are native to California (washingtonia sp.), but specifically to the Colorado basin and adjacent spring fed places in the low deserts. That's why they grow so well in Los Angeles.

Some of the really tall, more slender washintonias are native to Mexico (w. robusta). These are the ones you see about the Beverly Hills Hotel, and probably more common in the LA basin than the native. They get taller than w.filifera, which often is seen with much more thatch under it.



Those larger feather palms at center are the Canary Islands date palm. Another subtropical palm that's found at least as far north as San Francisco.

[Thundergod]

No more palms? Never ever? No native palms replace the old ones?
In almost every movie or music video that take place in Los Angeles there are palms. And in the future just oaks?
Oaks need water too. Desert palm trees with the need of little water are good.
I have read somewhere that the palms need hundred liter water each day

[Rail Claimore]

Canary Island palms are not native to California, but I believe they ARE native to Florida and the Gulf Coast... and they're the type that's associated with that state.

[112597Jorge]

Originally Posted by Rail Claimore

Canary Island palms are not native to California, but I believe they ARE native to Florida and the Gulf Coast... and they're the type that's associated with that state.

neither are they native to florida nor the gulf coast, i can say than canary palms seen in california can be called naturalized not native, this goes for florida and the gulf also.

[Middle-Island]

Originally Posted by Rail Claimore

Canary Island palms are not native to California, but I believe they ARE native to Florida and the Gulf Coast... and they're the type that's associated with that state.

They're native to the Canary Islands....off of Spain. I meant they can be grown as far north as SF.

The "palmetto" (sabal sp.) is the one I think you're referring to, as to Florida and the Gulf coast... its varieties ranging from Texas to South Carolina.

[milquetoast]

Middle is an expert on "palms".

A masterarborist, if you will.

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by Barcelona60

Thanks you so much for the pics!

See, this is what I miss about LA too. Sounds silly to some but its as much LA as the beaches, cityscape and most of all the insane people! Love it!

Funny. As a native I had never invested too much on that thought, but since I have so many out of town friends, when they'd visit that was one of the first comments; the palm tress everywhere, lining the streets.

I started thinking, we have to save what we have, and replace what we've lost.

Below, a writing I found on the subject:

[Kenny]

A Brief History of Palm Trees in Los Angeles (Southern California)
by Nathan Masters
on December 7, 2011 12:30 PM


Early 20th-century postcard depicting Santa Monica's Palisades Park. The text on the reverse read, 'Atop a lofty bluff is Palisades Park, one of the most beautiful on the Pacific Coast, where amid tropical palms and gay flowers, one may rest and view the grandeur of the blue Pacific.' Courtesy of the Werner Von Boltenstern Postcard Collection, Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University Library.


If you close your eyes and imagine a typical Southern California landscape, chances are that you've pictured at least one palm tree, if not several, rising from the ground. But despite the diversity and ubiquity of palms in the Los Angeles area, only one species—Washingtonia filifera, the California fan palm—is native to California. All of L.A.'s other palm species, from the slender Mexican fan palms that line so many L.A. boulevards to the feather-topped Canary Island date palm, have been imported.

Although they conjure the image of Los Angeles as desert oasis, L.A.'s palm trees owe their iconic status more to Southern California's turn-of-the-century cultural aspirations and engineering feats than to the region's natural ecology. Though watered in some places by perennial streams like the Los Angeles River, Southern California's pre-1492 landscape was decidedly semi-arid, a patchwork of grassland, chaparral, sage scrub, and oak woodland. As monocots, palms are actually more closely related to grasses than they are to woody deciduous trees. They need an abundance of water in the soil to grow successfully, and so they—like the manicured lawns they often adorn—rely on the vast amounts of water that Southern California imports from distant watersheds.

Southern California's native palms grow far away from Los Angeles, in spring-fed Colorado Desert oases tucked deep inside steep mountain ravines. Centuries before palms were cultivated for their horticultural value, the Cahuilla Indians used these Washingtonia filifera as a natural resource, eating the fruit and weaving the fronds into baskets and roofing.


Native Washingtonia filifera palms growing in an oasis near Palm Springs, circa 1900. Courtesy of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries.



Men rest beneath two fan palms, perhaps planted by Spanish missionaries, in front of Mission San Fernando, circa 1886. Courtesy of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries.



Early 20th-century postcard depicting the historic Los Angeles Plaza and La Iglesia Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles. Courtesy of the Werner Von Boltenstern Postcard Collection, Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University Library.



Palms in Westlake (now MacArthur) Park circa 1915. Courtesy of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries.



Palm trees on Figueroa Street south of 16th Street circa 1890. Courtesy of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries.



Elias J. (Lucky) Baldwin's gardens in Arcadia teemed with palms. Baldwin's estate is today the Los Angeles County Arboretum. Courtesy of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries.


California's eighteenth century Franciscan missionaries were the first to plant palms ornamentally, perhaps in reference to the tree's biblical associations. But it was not until Southern California's turn-of-the-twentieth-century gardening craze that the region's leisure class introduced the palm as the region's preeminent decorative plant. Providing neither shade nor marketable fruit, the palm was entirely ornamental. Its exotic associations helped reinforce what Kevin Starr describes in Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era as "Southern California's turn-of-the-century conviction that it was America's Mediterranean littoral, its Latin shore, sunny and palm-guarded."

Although they lacked the zealous advocacy that Abbot Kinney's eucalyptus trees enjoyed, palm trees soon appeared throughout Los Angeles, from the front yards of the mansions along Figueroa Street to public spaces like Pershing Square, Eastlake and Westlake Park, and the historic central plaza near Olvera Street.


Workers plant palm trees on Wilshire Boulevard between Western and Wilton in 1926. Courtesy of the Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.



Officials of the Ebell Club and the Women's Community Service Auxiliary of the Chamber of Commerce plant a Washingtonia fan palm on Wilshire Boulevard in honor of Arbor Day, 1935. Courtesy of the Herald-Examiner Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.



Young palms line Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, circa 1918. Courtesy of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries.


The 1930s witnessed the largest concerted effort to plant palm trees in Los Angeles. Pasadena planted palms at 100 feet intervals along Colorado Boulevard and considered renaming the thoroughfare the "Street of a Thousand Palms." In Venice, gardening enthusiasts planted 200 Washingtonia robusta (Mexican fan) palms on Washington Boulevard to celebrate the bicentennial of the nation's first president, for whom the tree was named. The Los Angeles Times regularly printed articles praising the palms' "magical" qualities and comparing the trees to "plumed knights."

In 1931 alone, Los Angeles' forestry division planted more than 25,000 palm trees, many of them still swaying above the city's boulevards today. This massive planting effort—conceived by the city's first forestry chief, L. Glenn Hall—is often characterized as a beautification project for the 1932 Olympic games. But impressing foreign athletes actually played less of a role than did getting L.A.'s unemployed back to work; the $100,000 program that planted some 40,000 trees in total was part of a larger unemployment relief program, funded by a $5 million bond issue. Beginning in March 1931, the city put 400 unemployed men to work planting trees alongside 150 miles of city boulevards. Mexican fan palms—then costing only $3.60 each—were spaced 40 to 50 feet apart.

Today, many of the palm trees planted in the 1930s are nearing the end of their natural life spans. The recent arrival of the red palm weevil—known to devastate palm populations across the world—augurs poorly for the fate of younger trees. The L.A. Department of Water and Power has indicated that as the city's palm trees die, most will not be replaced with new palms but with trees more adapted to the region's semi-arid climate, requiring less water and offering more shade.

Like the palm, the orange tree was also once a ubiquitous feature of the landscape and a symbol loaded with cultural meaning. In fact, early-twentieth-century postcards and other promotional materials often featured scenes of tranquil orange groves framed by exotic palms. Those groves have largely vanished from Southern California. It remains to be seen whether the palm's future will be any different.

[losangelino]

Originally Posted by Kenni

Funny. As a native I had never invested too much on that thought, but since I have so many out of town friends, when they'd visit that was one of the first comments; the palm tress everywhere, lining the streets.

I started thinking, we have to save what we have, and replace what we've lost.

Below, a writing I found on the subject:

Interesting that this thread resurfaced. There is really no need to "replace" anything because these older palms send seeds out "everywhere" and they take root at the first sign of water. As I mentioned in this thread a few years back, my backyard is full of them. At least 12 just sprung up on their own and now they are gigantic and tall. There is a ravine at the bottom of the hill in back where these seed collect, and if it weren't for the grounds keepers, we'd have a literal palm forest back there. They pull the seedlings regularly and sell them is my guess. These seeds from these older trees will ensure that the palm is a permanent feature. I'm doing my part too. There are at least6 in my front yard. Two grew on their own.

[Middle-Island]

Originally Posted by milquetoast

Middle is an expert on "palms".

A masterarborist, if you will.

I'm sure you don't need lessons in that area.

[milquetoast]

Kenni, that was quite the contribution!
I learned a lot!

[losangelino]

Hard to imagine LA not "always" being like this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LA_Echo.JPG

[112597Jorge]

i truly believe the future of palms in LA are safe and we will see more palms as time passes, just cause the city council says that they will be planting oaks instead of palms doesnt mean they will disapear, there will still be millions of people all over the LA area that will continue to grow, plant, and love palm trees (myself included).