Some Trees: Los Angeles

Los Angeles, the desert city, may have more species of trees than any other city in the United States, almost none of which are native to the basin. Thank Luther Burbank, the Johnny Appleseed of southern California. Trees in LA are used to advertise, decorate, disguise, shade, beautify, camouflage, capture carbon, barricade, cool and conceal. I spent an hour or so each day for the last couple of weeks walking the neighborhoods of the Valley and its nearby canyons surveying LA’s mad assemblage of trees, lustily taking root where no trees should grow. – JSC

TRIC, Ventura Blvd. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Financial Center trees, Ventura Blvd. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Eucalyptus, Coldwater Canyon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Bank palms, Studio City. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Razor wire and sugar pine, Reseda. Van Nuys. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Date palm, Van Nuys. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Date Palm trunk, Studio City. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Elm and house, Dixie Canyon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Winter trees, North Hollywood. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Alley palm, North Hollywood. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Sycamore, Sherman Oaks. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Utility lines and oranges. Ventura Blvd. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Antique Mall Palm, Sherman Oaks. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Wind break and crow, Studio City. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Date Palm and shed, Beverly Glen. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

“Love Yourself,” Sherman Oaks. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Monica the Psychic, Ventura Blvd. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Date palms, Coldwater Canyon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Coldwater Canyon from California Pizza Kitchen. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Lone palm, Burbank. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

California Live Oak (Dead). Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Jeffrey St. Clair is editor of CounterPunch. His most recent book is An Orgy of Thieves: Neoliberalism and Its Discontents (with Alexander Cockburn). He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net or on Twitter @JeffreyStClair3