Quote:
Originally Posted by ThatDarnSacramentan
Palm trees just seem out of place in Sacramento, a city of oak, maple, and redwood. I didn't know they had been there that long.
|
Most of Sacramento's street trees are elms, primarily East Coast varieties. A lot of early settlers to Sacramento were from the East Coast, and the first arborists brought Eastern varieties to use as street trees. There are not very many native valley oaks in Sacramento proper except along nature trails--most were cut down long ago. There is only one species of maple (the "Bigleaf Maple" or Oregon Maple) native to California--three species of palms are native in this state. The redwood is found in California, but it did not grow in the Sacramento area until we planted them here--they are generally found in cooler and more mountainous climates. In the later 19th and early 20th century, people started to use palms as ornamentals throughout California, and they are well-suited to our climate--you find them as far north as Redding. Other "foreign" trees were used, like eucalyptus, which were popularly used to shield smelly or unsightly areas from public view, due to their aromatic and scenic nature.
Sutter's Fort was reconstructed in the 1890s (only the central building is original) and when it was rebuilt, the landscape planners of the era provided their own ideas on how the fort should represent the state of California. That included palm trees, some cactus (also not native to Sacramento), redwoods, and I think there may be a couple of valley oaks in there too.