The Department of Recreation PLEASE PROTECT ME and Parks maintains and pro- Giant tects hundreds of heritage trees. I am a very rare specimen tree in Heritage trees are individual The your area. In order to ensure my trees of any size or species that survival, please protect me by Twins are specifically designated as following these suggestions: heritage because of their histori- HERITAGE TREE 1. Do not injure my trunk. cal, commemorative, or horti- 2. Keep all machines and weed cultural significance. Preserving whips away. these treasures is important for future generations to admire. 3. Do not pull or cut any - For further information, please lets that appear in the ground contact the Department of Rec- around my base or in my reation and Parks at the address trunk. below. 4. Do not over water me.

5. I will respond well to a good nutrient supply with an even NPK balance and supple- mented trace elements. CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF RECREATION AND PARKS General Manager 6. R e m o v e Manuel A. Mollinedo any competi- Forestry Division tion from 3900 W. Chevy Chase Drive Rustic Canyon Los Angeles, CA 90039 Recreation Center neighboring 601 Latimer Rd. Pacific Palisades, CA 90402 . Phone: 213-485-4826 Fax: 213-847-0820 Website: www.laparks.org Tel: (310) 454-5734 DINOSAUR FOOD CONES Giant Dioon Scientists sometimes refer to me as a living fossil. I made my appearance into this planet years before That is because my ancestors lived in the era before any flowering plants. Back in those days, I mainly and during the dinosaurs. Amazingly I survived many shared the planet with spore-bearing plants such as apocalyptic disasters of ferns and mosses. I was one of the very first plants the past that destroyed that started to producing seeds. I produce my seeds most of the living or- in a cone-like structure. My cone resembles a foot Hello!!! If you thought for a second that I was ganism in this planet. just another common palm; think again !!! Peo- My appearance hasn't ple often refer to me as a palm but let me assure changed in millions of you that there is very years. Fossils from my little relation be- ancestors have been tween a true palm unearthed and they and myself. Al- show that I look exactly though you may find like plants from mil- it difficult to believe, lions of years in the past. It is believed that my ances- I share a closer rela- tors served as a very important source of food for FEMALE CONE tionship to pines, many species of dinosaurs and other prehistoric ani- ball in shape and size. Depending on the specific junipers, cypresses, individual, we may produce a male or a female redwoods, and other cone. Only the female cone-bearing, none- cone produces seeds. The flowering plants. The name that Botanists gave male cone only produces me is Dioon spinulosum. I belong to a special pollen. People used to group of plants commonly referred to as the believed that we depended “”. The cycads are a group of primi- on wind to accomplish our pollination. After many tive palm-like plants that have a world-wide observations, people dis- distribution. As for myself, I am native to Mex- covered that beetles are ico. I was brought over and planted in the the main pollinators of 1900’s. I am a very slow growing plant which cycads like myself. Inside produces a single set of new fronds each year. It the protective cones I produce MALE CONE has taken hundreds of years for me to reach my FROND many large seeds. It takes several years for the current height of over 30 feet. I am considered mals. In order to defend themselves from such enor- seeds to mature and be ready as the largest of my kind in California. In the to grow. Although my seeds mous animals, many plants including myself, made our past, I used to have a double headed trunk. Due are not edible to humans, in fronds very tough and rigid and equipped with very to environmental problems, one of the heads in the wild monkey have been sharp needles and spines. Today there are very few my trunk has died off. My twin is planted next observed dining and enjoying herbivore animals that would dare take a bite of my to me. Please come over and visit us any time them. foliage. you want. BEETLES