There’s only one palm tree native to California, and it’s not the one you see rising above Los Angles. You might call it the bastard child of the palm family, with a look akin to a shaggy monster from the Muppet world. Underneath its familiar palm fronds lies a “skirt” of their dead brethren covering the entire trunk from top to bottom. Christopher Castro, a tribal ranger at Indian Canyons, tells me this skirt is like a condo: Insects, snakes and rodents live below, birds and bats live in the midsection and raptors prowl from up above. Thus, Indian Canyons is renowned throughout the animal kingdom as the largest condo complex of California fan palms…. (continue reading at The Chicago Tribune)