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Do You Know What the Official Plant of the City of L.A. Is?
Photo by Greg Balzer via Flickr
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Maybe we should back up: Did you know the City of Los Angeles has an official plant? Okay, as of this week, we do. And what is that honored bit of botany? It's the Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), and it's about to be all over the city's main civic grounds, City Hall.
The Los Angeles City Council voted to approve the Toyon as the official plant of L.A. this week, reports Which Way, L.A.
It's a festive plant (it's also known as California Holly) and is drought tolerant. It can get by on very little water, and is less of a fire hazard than other chaparral plants. "Toyon is a prominent component of the coastal sage scrub plant community, and is a part of drought-adapted chaparral and mixed oak woodland habitats," explains Wikipedia.
You can see some pictures of Toyon here, but you'll soon be able to see them in Downtown; they are a big part of the landscape do-over of the post-Occupy L.A. City Hall lawn. (Just don't try to check out the Toyon after park hours. Ahem.)
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