Los Angeles’ famous palm trees are dying

ONE of Los Angeles’ most recognisable features will soon be gone — and it will change the city’s famous skyline completely.

THE days of Los Angeles’ palm trees are numbered.

Beetles and a deadly fungus are killing the city’s legendary backdrop.

The South American palm weevil and a deadly fungus called Fusarium are both eating away at LA’s palm trees, according to the Los Angeles Times. Experts aren’t sure how much longer the trees will last but Andy Lipkis, president of LA-based advocacy group TreePeople, estimates the price of removing dead trees at around $37 billion over the next three decades.

The city has no plans to fill in the hole the trees’ absence will leave in the city’s iconic landscape.

Palm trees are one of the first things that come to mind when you think of LA.

“Palms are decorative and iconic, but Los Angeles is facing more and more heatwaves,” Elizabeth Skrzat, program director for LA’s tree-planting agency, City Plants, told the Guardian. “So it’s important that we plant trees that provide adequate shade to protect people and cool the city down.”

LA is expected to warm three to five degrees by the middle of the century, which will triple the number of extreme heat days.

And many palms also are dying of old age. More than 40,000 palm trees were planted ahead of the 1932 Olympics, as part of an effort to create jobs during the Great Depression. Palm trees typically live to between 75 and 100 years old.

There were 75,000 palm trees as of 1990, but they haven’t been counted since.

However, Ms Skrzat doesn’t think they’ll disappear entirely. Palm trees will still be planted in designated areas throughout Hollywood and developers will most likely continue to use them in landscaping outside homes and apartment buildings.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was republished with permission.