list of fruit trees in los angeles parks

[Epiphyte]

8 aug 2022 - posted thread about creating a rare fruit park in los angeles

15 feb 2023 - bookmarked thread about a white sapote at ernest e. debs regional park 

23 feb 2023 - googled for los angeles arboretum ficus

i was trying to find a list of all the ficus trees at the la arboretum, which i didn’t find.  instead i found the chavez ravine arboretum, which theoretically has... 

4. Brahea edulis
6. Butia capitata
47. Phoenix dactylifera
56. Eriobotrya japonica
59. Ficus racemosa
61. Myrciaria cauliflora
76. Psidium guajava
103. Pinus edulis
134. Araucaria bidwillii

i somehow managed to overlook this arboretum even though it’s only 10 minutes from me.  subsequently i learned that my plant friend don hodel gave a talk there in 2005.  he doesn’t recall seeing a jabuticaba.

20 mar 2023 - googled for ernest e. debs regional park "sapote"

found a list of trees in los angeles parks which i copied and pasted into this google sheet, which i then copied and pasted into this sheet...

Fruit And Other Edible LA Park Trees

21 mar 2023 - wrote a couple sad scripts to get this…

Most Simplified Fruit And Other Edible LA Park Trees

when i was a kid i remember curing olives with my grandparents.  it was a lot of work and required a lot of patience.  the resulting olives tasted... different.  perhaps it was a good difference but not good enough to make it worth it for us to ever go through the process again.

sylmar park has 46 olive trees because there are lots of grandkids and grandparents interested in curing olives?  doubtful.  i wouldn’t be surprised if the olive trees are the fruitless variety.  

it makes more sense that o'melveny park has 96 "sweet orange" trees.  but according to its wikipedia page most of those trees are actually grapefruits.  is grapefruit a good stock for pomelos?

what about the 50 california bays at griffith park?  more useful than the alternatives?

It is impossible for anyone, even if he be a statesman of genius, to weigh the whole community's utility and sacrifice against each other.  - Knut Wicksell, A New Principle of Just Taxation

which trees are worth the greatest sacrifice?  which threads are worth the greatest sacrifice?

admittedly i did briefly consider creating a private group on facebook to secretly share this treasure map with a few select people.  the 1st rule of foraging club is... don’t talk about foraging club.  

the fact is though, the treasure map is meager.  the average park is less fruitful than some gas stations i've seen in san gabriel valley.  

ideally the treasure map should be packed with garcinias, eugenias, yangmeis, biribas, kwai muks and so much more.  if every rare fruit collector in the los angeles area donated one tree... how many trees would that be?

donating money to specific la parks is easy enough... and it’s possible to pay $250 for the planting of a tribute tree... but it doesn’t seem like you can specify the type of tree.  

just now i read this article... how los angeles is leading the urban tree-planting revolution.  it gives the impression that a considerable amount of collective intelligence has gone into the process of tree selection.  but this is just so much fake news.  the city is never going to get anywhere near the right answer without everyone in the world having the opportunity to use donations, and taxes, to help prioritize which trees are planted in la’s public spaces.

it is the greatest of all mistakes, to do nothing because you can only do little - sydney smith

at a recent plant sale i made friends with keith peabody who’s in charge of the arboretum at pierce college.  hopefully we can collaborate somehow.   

[Pouteria_fan]

This is a really neat idea. Keep us posted.

You could either go the guerilla route, or the official route. Risk and benefits of both.

[0hip]

Not bad

 I might make one for the parks in the city i live. All have signs saying dont pick the fruit so not really open to foraging but still fun to do.

Also have bugger all to do at work. spent half a day making a map of all the trees at my house two weeks ago using an online house designer app

[botanical pilot]

Looks like the arboretum also has my favorite palm, Jubeae chilensis, which is edible. It produces these little adorable "coconuts" though it's not related to Cocos.

[shmojojojo]

fallingfruit.org is a great resource for urban foraging.

I've been meaning to add to their map. I've returned from dog walks with avocados, guavas, citrus and more. I even know of a few public ice cream bean, mango, loquat and others.

[Epiphyte]

ever heard burdekin plum (pleiogynium timoriense)?  i'd never heard of it until the other day when i randomly found it at the la arboretum...



coincidentally it had quite a few fruits on it.  the ones on the tree were all hard so i summoned my inner "all the fruit" and tried a ripe one from the ground that was intact.  here's what it looked like after a few bites...



tasted kinda like a disappointing plum.  similar texture and flavor, but not much sweetness. 

it's definitely not something i'd suggest going out of your way to try, but if you were planning on going to the arboretum anyways, the tree is across the orchid greenhouse, past the grove of bottle palms and to the right.  you'll see a curtain of leaves all around except for on the other side.