On Earth Day (Tuesday, April 22) join us to plant a future giant Moreton Bay Fig tree in Carthay Circle

Gentle reader,

In our wandering around historic Southern California landscapes and gardens, we often come across old and remarkable Australian trees that were planted by early civic boosters and horticulturists in the hope that these Antipodean giants would also reach great heights in the new world.

In the rose garden of Henry Huntington’s estate in San Marino, you can admire a magnificent Queensland Kauri that was recently designated the National Champion Big Tree. If you sit very still, you might see the lizards who make a home in the lower branches.

On the border of Boyle Heights and East Lot Angeles, you can make a pilgrimage to El Pino, a towering Bunya Bunya that has long been a neighborhood landmark, and gained international fame after it was featured in the 1993 cult film Blood in Blood Out. The redevelopment threat still hangs over this sentinel, but for now, it’s standing tall.

At El Pueblo, where we’ll be tomorrow on the debut edition of the Leo Politi Loves Los Angeles walking tour, you can admire three stately Moreton Bay Figs that were planted by Elijah H. Workman in 1875. There were four until 2019, when the one closest to City Hall cracked and fell over. Workman’s trees continue to produce viable seeds, and provide a lovely shade on sunny days.

Yes, huge Australian trees are pretty easy to find around Los Angeles. But should you wish to plant one for future generations to enjoy, you’ll have a tough time finding a seedling at local nurseries. Big trees—especially cone producers like Bunya Bunyas— aren’t the best choice for residential plantings, and municipalities prefer to plant natives.

Natives are certainly nice, but spectacular Australian trees have a 150+ year history in Southern California that we think is worth honoring, and emulating.

So, what are you doing on Earth Day (Tuesday, April 22) at noon? How about joining Ann Rubin from the historic Carthay Circle community, the City of Los Angeles’ Urban Forestry Division, Esotouric and our preservation pal Dr. Don Hodel (author of Exceptional Trees of Los Angeles and great advocate for the heritage trees at Rancho Los Amigos) to plant an actual Moreton Bay Fig on the San Vicente median (just east of Carrillo at the Barrows cross-over)?

We’d love to see you there! If you arrive by car, you’ll find plenty of street parking on San Vicente between Carrillo and Fairfax. If coming by public transportation, this link will help you plan your trip.

So where did this rare tree come from if you can’t buy them in local nurseries? The Moreton sapling was grown from a seed by Don Hodel, and with love and luck and the care of the neighbors, it will grow to be a heritage tree that will shade future Angelenos when all of us are gone, just as Elijah Workman’s trees do for folks at the Plaza.

This little tree has got mighty big shoes to fill: the planting marks the centennial of Carthay Circle, in the spirit of the remarkable Sequoia and Italian Stone Pine trees laid out about 100 years ago for visionary developer J. Harvey McCarthy's Carthay Center. We’re grateful to Ann Rubin for seeking out a tree that bridges the past, present and future, and for working so hard to get the neighborhood on the National Register.

Saturday’s walking tour honors Leo Politi’s incredible career as an illustrator and children’s book author turned historic preservation activist, and will take us from Grand Central Market to El Pueblo, the racy Main Street fun zone to Downtown’s one time living room Pershing Square, to Central Library to see his recently unveiled Bunker Hill paintings, then to Bunker Hill itself for time travel then-and-now vistas with native son Gordon Pattison and neighborhood historian Nathan Marsak.

We’re accompanied by the artist’s daughter Suzanne Bischof and other very special guests, and perhaps even an urban coyote spotting, and hope you’ll join us, do!

Yours for Los Angeles,

Kim & Richard

Esotouric

Are you on social media? We’re on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, Substack Notes, TikTok and Reddit sharing preservation news as it happens. New: we’re on Nextdoor now, too.

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Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles' past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city's soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.

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UPCOMING WALKING TOURS

• Leo Politi Loves Los Angeles (Sat. 4/19) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers (Sat. 4/26) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases (5/3) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (5/10) • Highland Park Arroyo Time Travel Trip (5/17) • The Run: Gay Downtown History (5/24) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (5/31) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (6/7) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (6/14) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (6/22) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (6/28) • Film Noir / Real Noir (7/12) • The Real Black Dahlia (7/19) • Broadway (7/26)

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