Last week we had a series of beautiful sunsets and — cliché though it is — they are irresistible to photograph. This was from December 31 (more or less):

Late December Sunset

With January comes the reliably sunny and cheerful bloom of the Pearl Acacia at the end of my street. This is one of my favorite trees, in or out of bloom. The flowers only last a few weeks, much too brief.

Acacia podalyriifolia

Sadly this tree was badly damaged during the freak windstorm we had a month ago (wind gusts up to 100 mph, they say). It now has a huge gaping hole where a large branch or two used to be.

Acacia podalyriifolia wind damage

This is how it looked in January, 2011:

Acacia podalyriifolia intact

If you did not get to experience the windstorm first hand, you can see a bit of the destruction in this video. Downed trees and lengthy power outages were widespread. But you won’t hear too many complaints from us in Southern California where we’ve been enjoying 80 degree weather all week. Unfortunately, the plants are a little confused by the heat and we’ve hardly had any rain yet this winter — the only time of year we can expect rain at all.

Finally, here’s a shot of the blimp circling back around to the Rose Parade on Monday, January 2:

Blimp over the Rose Parade

I personally met Scott only once, about a year ago, and we chatted for about 45 minutes about trees and landscape architecture. He was passionate about his vocation, charming, friendly and funny. I feel lucky to have met him in person, though I already knew him well by reputation. He left a great legacy for his community and his profession. He showed us what can be done and it is up to us to continue on in the critical work of re-foresting Los Angeles and beyond.

His family is requesting that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to North East Trees.

Wilshire Blvd., "Miracle Mile", where the A+D Museum is located

As envisioned by Rios, Clementi Hale Studios

Next stop: lunch. The lure of the food trucks that stretch along Wilshire at lunchtime in this neighborhood was too strong to resist. I had a delicious tofu / lemongrass bahn mi sandwich from the Phamish truck.

After that brief intermission, I crossed the street to walk among the forest of street lamps designed by legendary artist Chris Burden (also visible in the lower left corners of the photos above). Urban Light is one of my favorite public art installations in the city (especially since Barbara Kruger’s flag at MOCA is gone). Instead of explaining why, I’ll save a couple of thousand words by posting pictures. It’s easy to find other fantastic photos of this piece on line, taken by more talented photographers, including lit up at night.

Urban Light at LACMA, daytime, view from Wilshire Blvd.

Urban Light, LACMA, view toward Wilshire Blvd.

Just a bit deeper into the LACMA complex, in front of the newish Resnick Pavillion, is Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals / Chinese Zodiac (on display until February 12 next year). This article from The Economist gives a bit of context for their tour of the U.S. Some are fierce-looking, some are cute. They are all impressive in their Los Angeles setting against an installation of palm trees (by Robert Irwin) and a very blue sky with some high wispy clouds. To me they evoke some sort of odd cross between a council circle of deities straight out of a fantasy story and a display of trophies collected by some sadistic hunter or murderer. They are worth seeing in person, but here’s a complete set in photos:

Dog

Dragon

Goat

Horse

Monkey

Pig

Rabbit

Rat

Rooster

Snake

Tiger

I would love to see these installed in different environments. I think it would be an entirely different experience each time. At LACMA they form a closed circle, but in other installations they’ve been placed in a semi-circle arrangement instead. After Los Angeles, they are going to Houston, TX, then Washington, D.C. and afterward to Pittsburgh, PA.

Here you can see Cassia leptophylla and Tipuana tipu trees side by side (or rather, you can see the Tipuana tipus towering over the Cassias), both covered in yellow blossoms that also litter the ground like confetti. A handful of sculptures by artists such as Henry Moore and Maillot sit placidly in strategic spots, seeming to gaze back at you as you wander among them. I can’t imagine a better way to spend an hour if you’re passing through Pasadena.

Although I think the garden is one of the best reasons to visit Norton Simon, they do have a beautiful art collection as well — inside. Norton Simon also happens to be the location of one of my greatest celebrity sightings of all time: Stephen Hawking (many years ago)!

There are many other, wonderful plants here besides the two trees mentioned. I’ll save those details for another time.

When I traveled to Belize this spring, I got a chance to see those strangler figs in action! Deep in the jungle, among the Mayan ruins, are many trees slowly being swallowed up by the relentless aerial roots of strangler figs creeping downward to earth from their canopy cradles and devouring their host trees in the process. These are the plant worlds’s woody boa constrictors, smothering and suffocating the life out of their nursery trees as they engulf them on their way to solid ground.

This is the end result, a majestic tree with a trunk and roots resembling a waterfall poured down from an azure sky and leafy green canopy above, its roots cascading over a rocky pedestal.

Strangler Fig

Here is what it looks like along the way, a baby strangler fig’s roots slowing snaking their way down an unsuspecting palm tree’s trunk, enveloping it:

Strangling Fig

Strangling Roots

Until the roots hit terra firma and slither out in all directions.

* English is the official language of Belize — it was formerly a British colony, just like us. But Spanish is widely spoken, just like home, and Creole and various Mayan-derived dialects are also used.

There are so many Coconut Palms on the beach that you can actually just pick one up, knock it hard against the trunk of the tree, and start sipping the coconut water right out of it on the go (so much better than a Big Gulp). These are “custard” coconuts. Once you break it open, the delicious, soft meat is best eaten with a spoon. You do have to watch out for coconuts falling out of the trees; a guy in the hammock next to me had a very near miss and almost got beaned right on the noggin when one of them came crashing down out of the fronds.

Coconut Palm on the beach

Another Coconut Palm growing through a deck

Banana (or Plantain?) riverside

Red Mangrove along coast of Ambergris Caye

Banana Orchids growing on Red Mangrove along the river

Wild Orchids (blurry close-up)

Snake Cactus on Red Mangrove

Tillandsia (Air Plants) growing wild among the Mangrove

Russelia equisetiformis (Firecracker Plant) growing like crazy

Heliconia at Lamanai

A Strangler Fig at Lamanai

We got to see a few of the local critters, too.

Nymphaea (Water Lilies) with a "Jesus Bird"

Tiny Crocodile on a log

Spider Monkey watching us watch him

BIG Iguana

Right now, that plant is Echium candicans, known as Pride of Madeira (which sounds to me like the title of a triumphal poem from some other era written to celebrate a victorious battle). This striking plant really does originate from Madeira, a Portuguese archipelago north of the Canary Islands.

Whether or not you knew the name of this plant, you could not have missed seeing it if you have been outside of your house anywhere around Los Angeles lately. They grow to be very large and look like they want to swallow up anything that might get in their way.  At this time of year they send up dramatic spires of blue and purples flowers. These flowers are shortly aswarm with dozens, if not hundreds, of bees. These do particularly well near the coast  and are also good inland with only a moderate amount of water.

Echium candicans sharing the stage with a blooming Agave and a large Grevillea

Echium candicans flower spikes in shades of blue and purple

Echium candiscans blooms, closer-up (hard to see, but many bees!)

If you are lucky, you might catch a glimpse of a less common, but equally striking plant, Echium wildpretii or Tower of Jewels. This one is from the Canary Islands, Tenerife specifically.

Echium wildpretii

Echium wildpretii at the Huntington Gardens, May, 2010

In between all of the above activities, I stopped to photograph a couple of interesting gardens along my route. First, at the La Cañada Flintridge Library (conveniently next door to the Bargain Box Thrift Store operated by the Assistance League of Flintridge) there is a lovely demonstration garden full of native California plants with a few non-natives mixed in.

Ceanothus in bloom

Ceanothus, Agave, Fescue

Cercis and a bumble bee

Ribes and Juncus under an Oak

Verbena and Salvia spathacea

Second, just a little ways down Foothill Blvd., there is a vertical garden planted right into the retaining wall. The wall is made of stacked manufactured block, some with built in pockets to hold the soil and plant roots. It is filled with Centranthrus ruber (also known as Red Valerian or Jupiter’s Beard) and some Lantana that form a living wallpaper. These are two tough plants, sometimes invasive, that can thrive and spread in harsh conditions. They do get a little help from supplemental irrigation in the form of drip tubing that is woven through the wall (see the black hose in the photo below).

Vertical garden

You dont see the brown bits when whizzing by at 50 mph

Covert irrigation

OR, you could just have this instead (right across the street):

It makes me appreciate the effort involved in putting together the planted wall, even though it’s more trouble to do it.

(Also, I’m happy that I finally remembered how to do the ” ñ ” on my computer or this post might never have been published.)

Another big advantage to driving around the city is the opportunity to see a lot of different trees and plants in all their variations. Some are well-tended and others are mangled by terrible pruning. There are unexpected and beautiful combinations. But mainly, I get to track the seasons (yes, we have them in Southern California) by what is suddenly erupting into bloom.

This week it seems that the Chasmanthe is in flower everywhere. I’ve seen it covering rocky slopes in Mt. Washington (but was whizzing by too fast in my car to catch a photo) and in a few yards in Highland Park. This photo is from a front yard in Echo Park. It is nicely paired with a Solanum and the combination of the orange Chasmanthe floribunda and the purple Solanum flowers provides a nice pop, especially in the grayish drizzle we’ve had for a couple of days.