Jan 06
It was a reassuring symbol of stability amid the upheavals of colonial expansion and transformation of the land: an ancient, sprawling sycamore tree known as El Aliso. Growing in what is today the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the tree cut an imposing figure. It measured 60 feet tall and 22 feet around the trunk. Its canopy spread nearly 200 feet from tip to tip. Each year, the tree repeated its cycles—casting off leaves, resprouting them, dropping seeds, and stretching out ever so slightly—even as the surrounding landscape morphed from fertile flood plain into gritty city center.
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