Palm Sunday

 With Chiara Stile:

KCRW LA’s palm trees are ‘senior citizens.’ How many years do they have left?

Ahead of the 1932 Olympics, Los Angeles officials planted tens of thousands of Mexican fan palm trees around the city of Angels, as part of a plan to beautify the burgeoning metropolis and solidify its place on the world map.

The palms were tall, dramatic, and tropical, swaying gently in LA’s warm breeze – or bending horizontally with the gusty Santa Anas. A century later, it’s hard to imagine LA without these trees. But Angelenos might be right to start trying, because many palm trees live about 100 years.

“They're senior citizens,” says Donald Hodel, retired environmental and landscape horticulture advisor at the University of California Cooperative Extension. “But they still have many good years ahead of them.”

Hodel estimates many of the palms planted ahead of the 1932 Olympics have between 30 and 50 years left. “If there's a die-off, it won't be because of the age, it'll be because of some new introduced disease,” he says.

You know, you can always plant more. 

Our old family home in Cheviot Hills (an LA subdivision) had, and may still have several large palm trees, big Date Palms in front and back, and several Fan Palms along the side. I wonder how they're doing.

The Wombat has a double-stuffed Rule 5 Sunday: Vengeance Bikinis ready for consumption.