I’m must be really weird for a Californian, especially a native Californian whose family has been in California over a hundred years. I hate, loathe and despise palm trees. This morning made me even more sure of it.
There is a brushfire in Glendora that is cranking up right now in the middle of a Santa Ana event and the thing that is spreading the fire? The bloody ass palm trees.
Certain varieties of palm trees out here can be almost 10 stories tall and they burn like match sticks and fling the fire around when the tops burned like fiery dandelion fuzz and the embers rain down and catch everything below on fire. We have a native palm that doesn’t do that but most people don’t plant the Californa fan palm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washingtonia_filifera, Washingtonia fillifera palms, they plant: The Mexican Fan Palm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washingtonia_robusta. not my photo
They are the ones you see out here lining streets that seem to go up to the stratosphere. They are the ones that drop their fronds on your car and have nice long spikes that can puncture your tires if you run over them. They are the ones that get stuck in the under carriage of your car that you can drag for blocks because the damn thing is stuck there. They look nice and small when they are up high but when they land on the ground they are 9 feet long and heavy. Do not ride over them on your bicycle if you can help it.
Palm trees for those who don’t know, are not trees. They are overgrown pieces of grass. They do not have bark. They do not form rings from growth. They harbour rats in their crowns. They are big weedy pieces of grass. If you have to plant a palm tree out here at least plant the native or maybe a date palm and get some good out of it.
But worst they are ugly fire starters that need to come down. I don’t care that they are a symbol of LA. Pick something pretty like an old oak tree.
Adventures and Musings of an Arch Druidess 
Pine trees go up like Tiki Torches too. After the 2008 brush fires in Sylmar, I seriously contemplated getting rid of ours. But, we planted one of those trees 27 years ago — it was our very first Yule tree. The second one was from Tree People, back in the day when a donation got you a tree! We planted the I am with you on the palm trees — I think they are ugly, attract rodents, and burn way, way too easily. (Although I must admit to a certain fascination watching the opossums march up and down the palm tree next door…opossums I don’t mind — it is the rats!)
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Pines are bad but unless your in the mountains not as bad as stupid palm trees. When a fire started by my first camp we watched the fire go from pine to pine but it’s not the problem usually lower down except the ones in people’s yards. Better to have a fruit tree like an orange.
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Funny, I was just telling friends that I hated palm trees when I lived down in So Cal, but miss them now. But maybe not if they’re flingin’ fire!
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