The caption on this photo read “Palm trees on North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, circa early 1930s.” Without any other geographical markers to verify it, it’s hard to know for sure if this is actually a picture of N. Canon, but wherever it was, I think somebody went a little overboard in the palm tree planting department. Perhaps only planting every third tree would have been enough, do you think? And I wouldn’t want to be the person whose job it was to pick up all those fronds during the windy Santa Ana season.
This is how Canon Dr looked in January 2021:
I’ve heard that most of palm trees planted around this time (which are not native) have a lifetime of only about a hundred years. So, a whole lot of palm trees are going to start dying.
That will really be sad to see.
Looks like some of those trees have died or been removed by 2021. I do love all of those big palm trees you folk have there in LA. I think they are beautiful trees. I also like the white barked trees that you see all over. What are they? They all look so manicured.
Citrus trees have pale barks and can be shaped. And sometimes the trunks are painted white to protect against sun damage — but you see that more often in Arizona.
Birch trees and Eucalyptus trees also have pale bark, but I’d never call their leaf structure manicured.
My cousins in Ohio called palm trees “those funny trees with all the leaves on the top” when they visited as kids.
You may also be thinking of sycamore trees which are common in our parks or eucalyptus if they are more grand with peeling bark.
Upon further reflection, given the word manicured, I think you’re thinking of our ficus trees.
THEY ARE THE ONES YOU SEE UP AND DOWN THE STREETS IN MOST OF LA. THEY SURE ARE BEAUTIFUL.
All those Canary Island palms fell victim to a fungus and died by 1950. They were replaced with the Mexican Fan Palms which we see today.