Sixteen hikers showed up for our walk up to Amir’s Garden in Griffith Park on December 17. We climbed up the steep trail that starts just north of Camp Road, off Griffith Park Drive. The trail isn’t in great shape but it’s climbable and it’s the most direct route up to Amir’s Garden.
Our leader Nancy gave us some history of the garden. After the hillside burned in 1971, Amir Dialameh worked alone for decades to make a shady garden there, with permission but with no help from the city. Dialameh died in 2003. Today the garden is still maintained by volunteers, with occasional assistance from the city.
Linda Eremita was along and pointed out some interesting plants along the way. There were Southern California Black Walnuts, smallish trees with many trunks and, at this time of year, small walnuts on the branches. Linda explained that if you handle these walnuts, they can stain your hands and clothes black, and it’s very hard to remove the stain.
Toyon is one of the recognizable native shrubs we saw because of its bright red berries at this time of year. It’s also known as California Holly because of its berries and its leaves with teeth, like holly. Linda explained that the birds eat the berries, but prefer them after they have had time to ferment a little, making them less astringent but also alcoholic enough that the birds can get a little drunk.
Many plants in the park are not native species but planted in the park because they hope they will do well there. We saw recently planted Island Live Oaks, native to the Channel Islands. The small trees looked similar to small Coast Live Oaks, the commonest oak in the park, but the leaves are slightly different. We also saw non-native arbutus in bloom and in fruit at the same time. The reddest, ripest fruits were slightly sweet but, really, didn’t taste like much and were loaded with crunchy seeds.
On the way down from Amir’s Garden, we stopped at Kathy’s bench. New hikers got to hear the stories of Kathy Brizzard and Jeff Cuevas, and their times with GLS.
All in all, it was a nice low-key hike during the hectic days before Christmas.
