The Arboretum Coast Live Oak

This oak was already a big tree when the Tongva village of Aleupkigna, the place of many waters, still stood on this ground and before the people who lived there were pushed off it. The Arboretum puts it at over 200 years, which means it also predates by a century the Baldwin ranch era of the 1880s that the gardens around it were built from. Coast live oaks are the tree southern California had before anyone planted anything: evergreen, wide rather than tall, holding their leaves through the dry season on a root system that goes looking for water. This one is stop 2 on the Arboretum's own walking tour, uphill and north of the entrance rotunda, near the Celebration Garden. Two things to know before you go. The age comes from the Arboretum's own signage and tour notes rather than from an independent measurement, so read it as a careful institutional estimate. And the tree has been under treatment for a fungal disease, with visitors asked to keep out from under the branches while it is being worked on. Look from the edge of the canopy rather than standing beneath it, and check at the gate for the current advice. The Arboretum charges admission and is open daily, with parking on site.