Sycamore Becomes City’s Official Tree

The sycamore has become Port Hueneme’s official tree, even though only two of the trees survive from among a number planted about 75 years ago along Ventura Road.

The civic group Hueneme Beautiful suggested that the sycamore become the official municipal tree because of its historical significance. In addition, group members also asked that the pink hibiscus, which it uses as its logo, become the city’s official flower.

The City Council last week granted the flower and tree that status, after waiting a month while city staff researched whether bestowing the title on the sycamore would be appropriate.

About 1920, a member of a prominent Port Hueneme family planted sycamores along what became Ventura Road, said Dorothy Ramirez, chairwoman of Port Hueneme’s Historical Commission.

However, today, all but two of the trees along the parkway north of Clara Road are London planes, a sycamore look-alike more horticulturally suited to growing along major thoroughfares, City Manager Dick Velthoen said.

In another complication, the council adopted the coral tree in 1992 as the city’s “signature” tree.

“This tree was ‘unofficially’ to be Port Hueneme’s ‘official tree,’ ” Velthoen wrote in a report to the council.

Still, Velthoen didn’t oppose the designations, but didn’t wholeheartedly endorse them either.

“Hueneme Beautiful’s request does have historical significance notwithstanding mistaking the London plane trees for sycamores,” he said.