September, 2014, marks the centennial of the 180-year-old Hammel/Arcade Depot palm tree's transplantation to its forever home in Exposition Park, so my first visit to L.A. in two years was nicely timed.
Upon my arrival, though, I was initially alarmed to see that the ancient veteran had been the recent recipient of a rather severe trimming of its crown.
The arborists' perhaps overzealous labors left me with a nice souvenir of my palm pilgrimage, however: this shorn sheath fragment from The Oldest Living Thing in Los Angeles.
All photos © J Scott Shannon.