Photogenic little thing, with its festive, thread-like fibers. Apropos for this time of year. Looks a bit like yucca, but it’s a fledgling California fan palm (which I determined after perusing a few field guides). It caught my eye at my neighborhood park.
Less than a mile from my house, the park is a particularly nice place to stroll in November because it puts you in an autumn kinda mood. Many of the trees are deciduous, and parks personnel (intentionally or not) allow the fallen leaves to linger on the grass and paved paths and parking areas so that you can step on them and hear ’em crunch.
You also can admire the earth-toned arrays and get that autumnal aroma wafting while you walk — sort of like fresh apples. I remember it from my childhood, when I used to go apple picking at an orchard in New York.
Regardless, I thought I was the only weirdo who would make such a fuss over a thing like a fan palm. I mean, I crouched near it and snapped photos. But today I saw a woman at another nearby park examining a shrub. She stood near it, moving the leaves this way and that to get a good look. So I’m not the only one who’s oddly drawn to these elements of nature.
the prickly pressed 