Christopher Nyerges, pasadenaweekly.com, 9/28/23; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly |
| View of reconstructed native shelter or kizh (wigwam") using palm fronds, Palm Canyon. |
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The native California palm was used to make the Tongva kizh houses (artist's rendition).
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| Los Angeles is famous for its palm tree imports |
California has only one "native" palm, yet many outsiders and locals believe that California is "The Land of Palms."
The non-native palms are everywhere — along the coast, along the boulevards, in the movies, in front yards — but most are brought in from somewhere else [like Hawaii] to give California a distinctive look, even if it’s a look that belongs to some other place.
Non-native palms are high-maintenance trees, which are hard to keep small and pruned. Next to eucalyptus trees (also non-native), deaths by tree-pruners are high with palms.
Regardless of species, palms can be hazardous though they have many valuable traits.
Let’s look at some of the value of the native palm, particularly to Indigenous peoples (Kizh, Tongva, Chumash, Tataviam, etc.) of the past.
Ever heard of Palm Springs, home of the gay and curious, players and gamblers, rich and famous?
Palms Springs got its name from the many native palms that grow in and around that area, particularly at Native village sites, such as Palm Canyon.
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| Is this the Los Angeles Palm? No. |
Palms often grow where there is water, in desert oases, which is why there often came to be village sites at such locations.
Most people may think bright dates when they think of palms [no, we think of precious coconuts]. There are plenty of commercial date palms grown in the California desert, all originating from the Middle East.
But the fruit of the native palm is a small and black like a marble. Ripe fruit can be picked up on the ground to consume.
Chew the flesh off the hard stone (seed). The flesh is mildly sweet. Native people had several ways to eat these black fruits, and many still do so today.
One method is to grind the entire fruit — seed and flesh — into a flour and use that flour to make bread, biscuits, or pudding. The fruits can also be gently ground so that only the flesh comes off. That flesh is then used as a sweetening agent for other foods.
Another method is to boil the entire fruit, which yields a mildly sweet water. That water can be used as a beverage or used to sweeten other foods.
Botany
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| Pre-Los Angeles map of Tongva villages (Tongaavar) |
Worldwide there are about 3,000 species of palm trees. They are very conspicuous trees throughout California, widely planted as a street and park tree.
Typically, they have a large trunk, fat or thin, rising as tall as a five-story building. The fronds are either palmately or pinnately lobed.
The palmate leaves are formed on a stem, the fan palms. The leaves can also form as pinnately lobed leaves or feather fronds.
The fruits are usually drupes and are generally called dates. The common date palm has sweet fruit and two-lobed seeds. The fruit of the native is black and round-to-ovate, which comes from the native California palm (Washingoni filifera).
The "native" California palm was very useful but is now rarely seen, whereas the Golden State’s most iconic palms are from somewhere else. More
