Going along with our class discussion on alien species, I read an article on Palm Trees and how they are dying by the dozens in Los Angeles. Most palm trees in California aren’t native species- they were brought from places like Mexico by developers in the early 1900’s hoping to lure people to California.
Today, these palm trees are dying of old age and disease, and many experts think L.A. will be a lot better off without so many. Carmen Wolf, who is the program director of a native California plant nursery, says that “They have no ecological or environmental value whatsoever.” In fact, palm trees are not even trees, they are a grass, and do very little to trap air pollution.
These palm trees, which were once luxurious, are withered and infected with a fungus that actually chokes the tree. There is no cure for this fungus, and Steve Dunlap doesn’t recommend that these trees be replaced because the fungus stays in the soil even after the trees are gone.
Paula Daniels is heading a city-wide environmental plan to plant one million new trees, and palm trees are not included in this plan. On top of them having no environmental benefit, the cost of these trees has gone up way too high. Basically, palm trees are eye candy- they are shown around the Hollywood sign and in Beverly Hills, which is ok because they make L.A. what it is, but they do little for the environment.
Even though palm trees are dying off fast, NPR claimed that the day will never come when there won’t be any, because residents of L.A. are constantly filling trucks with palm trees and planting them in their backyard. Virginia Postrel, a longtime observer of Los Angeles society and author of “The Substance of Style”, says that palm trees are essential to Los Angeles’s sense of place. “For somebody that has lived here for many years, I have a positive response when I see the tall palm trees that represent L.A.”
“What the palm tree really represents is an oasis,” she adds. “Los Angeles is a manmade oasis; a place in the middle of the desert with water and people – lots of people – in it. So the palm tree is the perfect tree for Los Angeles.”
(pictures courtesy of Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_trees)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6102228&ft=1&f=1025
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=4239&IssueNum=168
