It’s hard to imagine Los Angeles without all the palm trees, but they’re actually not native to the area. The city’s officials have now warned that the palm trees are dying off too quickly to replace them.
Palm trees have been planted in the area since the 1930’s with the intention of drawing interesting to the West Coast. It worked. But now the South American palm weevil and Fusarium fungus are going to town on the trees, and they happen to be pretty pricy to replace.
Instead of coughing up $20,000 to replace each dying palm tree, the city of L.A. has considered bringing in some other trees that actually offer up real shade. Others hope they’ll change their mind. The palm trees won’t be gone overnight, but if they aren’t replaced as they die they could be gone from the city within the next 100 years.
