This is Earlham Street, looking west from Lake Avenue.I did not take this photo on a windy day.
Any scientists out there? What is it about our trees? Is our sun always in the southern skies and if so, why isn't that true of everywhere in the northern hemisphere? Is it axis tilt? Magnets? Or is it just my medication?
And to think I once thought of majoring in astronomy for about five minutes.
I am so tempted to remove that street light.
I feel better. Just don't enlarge this, I don't have Photoshop. And if my medication's the problem you don't want to upset me.
37 comments:
Hahaha! If it's the medication, don't change a thing. I prefer it without the street light as well. Are you going to give it back to them when it's dark?
Haha! Yeah, P. Be sure to give that back, especially if it rains again.
I've wondered about the tilting palms, too. Must check back to see if someone knows the answer.
It would be terrible if I had the real power, because iPhoto's erasing tool isn't very precise. So there'd be all these little blurs on street corners and sidewalks where I erased things.
HARRRRR! Gimme some of dat medication, sistah! I like it without the lamp! And don't enlarge my photo on Paris today. IT's so blurry you'll need Dramamine! I have a lot of nerve, you know. I'll just put any ole thing up there lately.
V
PS And why ARE those palms crooked? Maybe they be on drugs too.:)
I can ask R. He does run a palm tree farm.
In the meantime, I think I've seen a ghost. ;-)
Now....if you had a tripod, you could shorten one leg and straighten those palms right up!!!
wv: musednes the act of being a muse???
I don't tend to see trees like this in real life so I find this to be a new phenomenon and an awesome photo! I'll have to check back as well to see the official explanation from one of your clever followers. :)
They are leaning towards the jet propulsion lab?
are they leaning down hill? I feel like someone once told me that, but I don't like that excuse.
V--a photo taken at the Palais Royal is not just any old thing.
Linda, I should have thought of that. Let us know, will you? I was going to ask something about his palms heading south but it didn't sound right.
Why didn't I think of that, Chieftess? All it takes is a crop...just lose the road...
Thanks, Shan. I hope we get satisfaction.
Almost in the opposite direction, Vanda, but not exactly. They're leaning south, and JPL is northwest of their location.
Yes, Ben, downhill. Maybe you're onto something.
Petrea, I've been waiting for this photo!
As for the street light, I'd recommend the Monkey Wrench Gang as a guide. Chain saws cut aluminum,right?
My captcha word is unoncipa. Beautiful.
Maybe you could do a number on the power poles too. Hard to believe that city tree trimmers actually climb up these things to trim the palm fronds.
Interesting palm trees. I'd say they're leaning left because Pasadena seems like a reasonably liberal city, but then I realized that from the other direction they're leaning right, so that can't be the reason. I too will check back for a better explanation! And I agree the photo's better without the street light. Too bad it's not one of those old funky ones.
Hmmmm...maybe Vanda's on to something...maybe the palms are leaning a-w-a-y from JPL!!!!
If you have ever seen a flock of ducks flying in a V formation one side of the V is always longer than the other. The reason for that is --- the longer side has more ducks. Glad I could help with your question.
Mark...you're goooood!!!
Cliff, I thought of you but couldn't figure out your email. I should have it but I don't.
I didn't know that, Michael.
We have both sides here, Katie, because we know it takes all kinds.
As the Chieftess points out, we've already got scientific minds weighing in. Vanda, Ben, and now mark with a brilliant (though unrelated) theory. All the best people show up here.
Your comments are so much more interesting than my mundane guess that they're sloping south to maximize their intake of sunlight. The palms on Del Mar by S. Orange Grove lean in exactly the same direction. If you couldn't move and had some food placed on one side of you, wouldn't you lean toward it? But that does raise the question of why other trees don't do this. Hmmmmm
Many trees grow to conform, in their own best interest, to the prevailing winds, like those cool Cypress trees in Monterey.
These palm trees are Washingtonia robusta, the Mexican Fan Palm. They are taller and skinnier than Washingtonia filifera, the California Fan Palm (and the only palm native to California). The Mexicans are more flexible than the Californians.
Naturally, I waited until after commenting to zoom in on the photo. The trees are pointing south - the same direction that the Santa Ana winds blow.
At the perspective point there is a palm that looks to be the California type. In the foreground yards on the right are a few Canary Island Date Palms (Phoenix canariensis), also not so bendy.
This is why I'm so freaked out, Bellis. ALL our tall, skinny palm trees lean south.
Greg, you being a mountain guy, I'm impressed with your palm knowledge. But didn't I tell you not to enlarge the photo? See, now I'm all enraged and everything. Unless you enlarged the top photo, then I'm not.
I only enlarged the one with the light standard, not the one with the ghost.
I is a graduate of the horticulture program at UCLA Extension, and I spent ten years in the nursery/landscape biz, so I know from ornamental plants; orchids too.
Ah. I feel better. NOw, if Greg could just explain this one of mine from a while back.
http://southpasadena.blogspot.com/2009/12/tree-hugger.html
Sometimes streetlights just get in the way. As well as electrical lines.
Laurie, I'll answer on your blog.
Greg, I was funnin' ya. You can enlarge whichever photo you want to. And you are a fountain of horticultural information! Doesn't surprise me.
Laurie, I remember that post!
Amy: Look how Vanda makes the wires and poles work: http://valley-photo.com/content/valley_005_large.html
In fact, you guys, go see what she's doing. Great stuff: http://valley-photo.com/valley.html
I love the ghost lamp post (and I confess I did enlarge the second photo!). It's very Harry Potter.
Yes, wind. The official answer from Ellis Farms, Inc.
R. says that he hates to see palms lining streets here that run east to west, as they throw off the perpendicular. North and south streets fare better on the parallel lean. Apparently.
I guess that leaves me to give the religious explanation: They are bowing in obeisance to the palm tree god.
BTW, Friday night-Saturday will be the holiday Tu Bishvat, the birthday/new year's day of trees.
Bellis, when I'm beyond my rage I'll have a word with you. Ahem.
So there we have it. The scientific word and the religious explanation. What could be more definitive?
The proprietor of Ellis Farms, Inc., where they grow palm trees, of all things, has given us the answer. And he should know. I wonder if he knows about Tu Bishvat? Very interesting that this holiday comes two days before we go to the City Council to discuss the Hahamongna plan, which includes removing something like 70 mature, non-native (not necessarily invasive) trees from the park.
If you're interested, read the plan and come to the meeting on 2/1 at 7:30 at City Hall.
REMOVING 70 trees?? Oi mama mia.
Yeah. Beautiful ones, too, Dina. All kinds, including giant eucalyptus that tower to the sky. It's heartbreaking, a waste of money, and destruction of habitat that's needed after so much habitat was destroyed in the Station Fire. They say they'll take out the trees in a gradual fashion but are not specific as to what that means.
When vegetation is invasive, removal makes sense. But for non-invasive trees I don't understand it.
Hey, just in case anyone reads my previous post and thinks I flaked-out, I answered (ad nauseum) about Palm tree tilt on Laurie's blog. Apparently the comment didn't go through and I'm not going to try and repeat it.
Va,Royal-palm is sideling.
That is a really cool photo, she definitely makes the wires work. And that's just down the road from me. :)
Bless you, Greg, you're no flake.
You got that right, Danial.
Vanda's photo. Right, Amy. She's really good. I used to live relatively close to that spot, too (Blix near Lankershim). I'm trying to get Vanda to let me follow her around on a photo safari one of these days.
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