Tony Parille introduced Richard Schulhof, CEO, of The Los Angeles Count Arboretum and Botanic Garden.  His talk this afternoon featured the many facets of what our local Aboretum is doing, not only for our community, but what our effort is the world of animals, plants, and birds.

First of all, he opened his talk by telling us of how, when people move, they do the strangest things!   Ranchers were moving, and upon their leaving they let their pythons go free to fend for themselves.  In doing this, the pythons were feeding on deer and other endangered species.

In the southern part of our country, such as Mississippi and Alabama, there has been a serious invasive plant, called Kudzu.  It has been spreading in the southern U.S. at the rate of 150,000 acres annually.  This plant, Kudzu, also has a nickname and it is “the vine that ate the south”.  It has overgrown on the farms and as one travels the roads, the Kudzu covers all the beautiful trees along the highways.  The Kudzu is everywhere!

Another problem are the ships that come into port.  The bottom of the ships are covered with ocean muscles.  Muscles may drop off the bottom or they can also get into the ship’s engines.  These muscles can produce 1 million eggs in one year.  You can see how this can effect any port or harbor, and this is happening world wide.  Two thirds of today’s shipments are inspected by USDA.  53,000 organisms are coming into the U.S.  This identical problem  is happening all over the world.

Can you imagine that the popular California poppy is now being grown along the coast of Chile?

In 1875, the modern history of Rancho Santa Anita began when Elias “Lucky” Baldwin purchased this Rancho and he started to construct buildings and grounds.  He had a flamboyant personality and became the first mayor of Arcadia.  There was much to be said about his personal life.  He loved trees, and animals and he loved the country of India.  Even, so much so, that in 1880 he imported the original 200 peahens and peacocks.  The current peacocks that roam the Arboretum and in some areas of Arcadia, are descendants of the first 200.  People that live near the Arboretum constantly call and complain about these peacocks, as they eat everything and they can be a nuisance.  The original 200 peacocks liked Arcadia and they  multiplied like crazy.

The peacocks remain the highlight for visitors and children, especially when they showoff their plumage of beautiful feathers.

The predators of the peacock are coyotes, raccoons, and sometimes even cats and dogs.  Peacocks do not like coyotes and perhaps a bit afraid of them.  So, when peacocks are acting up a rubber coyote is placed near them and they quickly move to where they were supposed to go.

Peahens are the females.  Peacock males are quite vain and the alpha male will be the most sought after by the penhens.  All of the penhens generally and will at times only allow the alpha male to father their chicks.  A test was done some time ago, and it was found that one alpha male had fathered all the baby chicks at the Aboretum.  What is it that makes the alpha male so attractive?  The penhens are attracted to the eyes on the feathers and of course their beautiful long feathers that fan out behind the peacock during mating season.  The penhens will at times, only go after the alpha male.

Richard mentioned that there is an invasion of bright yellow flowers in our area.  He advised that we should not worry about these flowers.

In the 1970’s and 80’s a bird named the “Yellow-chevroned parakeet were imported in large numbers to the United States.  They came from their native area of  the Southern Amazon.  These small birds thrive on the silk floss trees, of which we have plenty  in Southern California. These birds loved the San Gabriel area and the Arboretum.  Because of the abundance of trees and the food that they desired,  this tiny parakeet of this species exploded.

June, 2012, the Arboretum was invaded by love bugs.  Where they came from, no one knows.  They build tunnels  and invade the tree, which will eventually harm the trees greatly.  These bugs do not stay in the outer ring of the trees.   They go for the sweet spots.  The trees must be injected with pesticides to kill the boring insects.  Bugs take shelter in the mid part of the tree.  The bugs have invaded the California Sycamores and also the Avocado tree industry.  Recently they have sterilzed 100 thousand males and the process has started to eliminate many of these love bugs.

Richard, at the end of his interesting talk gave an invitation to the club to come to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and see all that is happening with natural history of birds, plants and trees.

Thank you Richard, for bringing all of us up to date on the big and small creatures in our area, plus the plants, trees, and the moving society of animals.

Phyllis Corliss