New Book Pays Tribute to Trees of San Marino

Broad, blue-green canopies of Engelmann oaks span Bradbury Road. Feathery coastal redwoods anchor the intersection by City Hall. Drooping shoots of majestic deodars frame the sky over the substantial homes of St. Albans Road.

And a dark-green, cigar-shaped Italian cypress stands tall above the winding parkway of Sierra Madre Boulevard.

These trees, in all their arboreous glory, now are enshrined along with more than 45 other varieties in a new book, “Trees of San Marino,” published by the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.

Known worldwide for its own exquisite and exotic trees, the Huntington has put together a 120-page tribute to the distinctive trees that grace the yards and medians of the museum’s hometown.

“The idea was to help people identify the trees they see every day,” said James P. Folsom, curator of the Huntington’s botanical gardens. “There are plenty of rare trees in the city, but they’re not in this book.”

Besides paying homage to San Marino and its greenery, Folsom said, “we want to remind people how fun it is to have a lot of different kinds of trees because you have to keep that going or else it dies out: You wake up one morning and people are planting the same kinds of trees everywhere.”

The book is intended to serve as a menu for home gardeners, “so people can look through the book and say, ‘I like that tree,’ ” Folsom said. “And then go look at it in town and say . . . ‘I think I’ll plant one.’ ”

Folsom, who wrote the introduction, said he hopes the book will encourage people to plant uncommon varieties as well as species such as the popular cassia, which grows well in small yards and provides a summertime burst of yellow and yellow-orange blooms. He also hopes the book will promote the planting of big and medium-sized trees, such as towering Italian stone pines, graceful Montezuma cypresses and slightly smaller aromatic camphors.

The spiral-bound paperback is not just for San Marino residents, he said, noting that many of the trees are common throughout the western San Gabriel Valley and the rest of Los Angeles County.

The book devotes two pages to each tree. The treatment includes full pen-and-ink silhouettes and details of fruits and flowers. Each entry also points out distinctive features and provides tips on where to see the trees in San Marino.

The book was years in the making. But publication came only after a recent anonymous donation of $10,000 and the arrival of author Wendy Stubley, a Huntington botanical intern from Canada who pursued the project while on a sabbatical.

Free-lance artists Pat Brame of Rosemead and Marianne Wallace of Monrovia provided many of the illustrations. In addition, Jacquelyn S. Giuffre, formerly associated with the Huntington, drew some of the illustrations when the project was first undertaken in the 1970s.

By the late 1980s, Folsom said, the time was right to finish the project. “There seems to be a growing resurgence of interest in trees everywhere,” said Folsom, noting that trees not only enhance aesthetics but also combat smog by consuming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“It is unusual for a town to have its own tree book,” Folsom said. But, citing Pasadena, Santa Monica, Whittier, San Diego and Oakland, he noted that some cities have published inventories or books on trees. And last year the California Arboretum Foundation published a book focusing on Los Angeles County’s exceptional trees, including a number in San Marino.

The San Marino book may be a precursor to a more extensive volume on the 600 species at the Huntington Gardens, Folsom said. But for now, he said, the focus is on the trees that dominate the landscape of this tiny, immaculate suburb.

“Trees of San Marino” costs $8.95 and is available from the library’s publications department or its bookshop.