Larchmont Chronicle Story Archive

Larchmont Chronicle Neighborhood newspaper representing Hancock Park, Larchmont Village
Miracle Mile, Park La Brea Fremont Place in the Wilshire center area of Los Angeles. Local News and
stories about the local Los Angeles Scene. Historical informattion regarding the Larchmont Chronicle and
Hancock Park area. Founded in 1963 on Larchmont Bouelvard, Los Angeles, CA, California

August 31, 2007

PALM TREES

Laura Cohen

VARIETY OF PALMS line Windsor Square home.

PALM TREES line both sides of Windsor Blvd. between Third and Sixth streets.

Palm trees: yet another threatened L.A. landmark?

Recently three palm trees just north of the Wilshire-Highland intersection were removed to make way for a southbound left-turn lane. This move came despite the landmark status of Highland’s palm-studded median, which fortunately did not preclude this common-sense traffic solution. The new lane instantly ended treacherous gridlock at an intersection where hundreds of students from John Burroughs school cross. Not incidentally, it also improved life for residents on surrounding streets.

It took some years beyond initial estimates for the lane to get built. We in Los Angeles take our palm trees seriously and when word spread that three would be removed, some objected. There are many in our community who still remember the fight to save the palms of the Highland median, back in the 1980s.

But the removal may just be the beginning of the end for the Highland palms, and others we’ve grown to love. These trees are nearing the end of their life expectancy of 75 to 100 years. If you’ve ever seen any vintage photos of our area, circa 1910-1930, you’ve seen newly planted palm trees, barely eye-level to a child. Today they have grown so tall they tower over houses whose streets they share; their minimal foliage is only visible if you crane your neck.

Certainly they cast no shade, except a long, thin stripe. Like an aging star, they look pretty good from far away, but up close you have to admit they’re past their prime.

Why this fascination with palm trees? Just as most Angelenos are not natives, neither are the palm trees, yet they are as much a symbol of our city as the Hollywood Bowl or Griffith Observatory. Palm trees appear in numerous real estate ads describing homes in Hancock Park. Author Elmore Leonard once said, “Los Angeles is Detroit with palm trees.” (Well, at least he found something to like here.)

Of the estimated 75,000 palm trees in Los Angeles, most are Mexican fan palms. Nearly 30,000 Mexican palms were planted as part of a beautification project for the 1932 Olympics, in mid-Wilshire, the Crenshaw district and parts south. A 2004 article in The Los Angeles Times quoted Don Hodel, horticulture advisor for the University of California system and author of “Exceptional Trees of Los Angeles” (California Arboretum Foundation). Hodel noted that in the wild, Mexican palms grow from 40 to 60 feet high, but in L.A., for reasons unknown, they have reached an incredible 100 to 150 feet. This great height represents a long life span, but the trees are not immortal.

The height makes removing the inevitable dead fronds extremely expensive, not to mention dangerous. And the momentum of a frond crashing to the ground from 100 feet up can cause serious damage to cars below—not to mention pedestrians. We’ve all had to deal with frond-strewn streets after the Santa Anas rip through, and it’s not fun.

In Hancock Park, as in other upscale neighborhoods around town, homeowners throughout the 1920s upgraded trees on their properties from Mexican palms to Canary Island date palms. That decision was most likely aesthetic, with cost a minor concern. These days, however, demand from Las Vegas casinos has forced prices for Canary Island date palms into the stratosphere. They cost up to $500 per foot of trunk, plus transporting and replanting.

Again according to the Los Angeles Times, “Spanish Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries brought the first date palms to California in 1769. A fruit industry built on seedlings from Algeria, Egypt and Iraq followed in the Coachella Valley in the early 1900s. From the 1880s onward, they became breezy emblems of the property boom.”

Last November, the City Council passed a motion to curb the planting of palm trees on city streets and medians. In fact, the city’s plan to plant a million trees in L.A. over the next five years is focused more on oaks, among other leafy trees that will provide shade and absorb auto emissions. Not exactly a tourist attraction, but they should make the squirrels happy.

Larchmont Chronicle
542½ North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Editor & Publisher: Jane Gilman
Associate Publisher: Irwin Gilman

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Information about the Larchmont Village, Hancock Park, Miracle Mile, Park LaBrea areas of Los Angeles, california. The larchmont Chronicle provides information, news stories, local events, advertising, real estate information, real estate listing advertisings, Los Angeles area demographics and other neighborhood news.