The landscape of the Los Angeles Basin just over 200 years ago would be unrecognizable today. Gently rolling hills were covered with pale green shrubs, filling the air with sweet and savory perfumes. Fog would roll over the mountains to the tune of birdsong, and in the valleys, oaks and sycamores would stretch their roots to sip from the abundant streams. Springtime would have meant symphonies of color across the landscape, with all creatures feasting on this technicolor bounty. 

One wonders where all that went.

Today, L.A. is reckoning with the destruction wrought by the hubris of 20th-century developers who tore out wildflowers for parking lots. In the quest for sustainability, organizations are beginning to reintroduce drops of the ecosystem lost so many years ago. 

President Carol Folt has been especially adamant about sustainability-oriented goals, such as achieving carbon neutrality by 2025 and zero-waste by 2028. But beyond not polluting the environment, another project has quietly been striving to give back — USC’s native landscaping.

For the trained eye, it’s not hard to spot the colorful developments that have been springing up around campus. I’ve found native landscaping behind Tutor Campus Center, near the School of Architecture and most prominently around the Thornton School of Music and School of Dramatic Arts complexes. Inspecting these sites, I have found katydids hidden in the foliage and hummingbirds zipping between flowers. Could we be seeing the return of the primeval shrubland that once nourished L.A.?

Unfortunately, not even close.

USC, like others timidly venturing into the realm of native plants, is suffering from a lack of specificity that comes with the intensive observation of local native conditions. The University, in a maneuver almost pungent with superficiality, has employed a majority of plants that would have never grown here. 

According to my own calculations, less than 50% of USC’s “native” plants’ native ranges overlap with USC’s campus. One plant I documented, Little Sur Manzanita (Arctostaphylos edmundsii), isn’t even from L.A. County, and it’s used as a groundcover around native sumac species. It’s supposed to grow hundreds of miles away in Monterey County.

However, these plants are drought-tolerant, and could therefore be considered by some to be sustainable enough as is. But the thousands of species dependent on true native plants for food and reproduction may say otherwise. 

Charles Miller, chair of the Biodiversity & Ecosystems Committee, writes that “we could lose 50% of all species by the end of the century … Having already lost over 90% of our native pollinators, we need to take advantage of … native [plants].” 

Moreover, the lack of awareness surrounding the origins of many of the plants used comes into direct ideological conflict with USC’s commitment to honor the native lands on which the University sits. Native plants were and are central to indigenous tribes’ ways of being, as they provide materials for tools, medicine and cuisine. By not taking the open opportunity to honor the Tongva and other tribes through accurate landscaping, USC’s acknowledgment rings fairly hollow. This landscaping turns its back on both the native animals and people who would most appreciate it.

Then why not put in the research to make a genuinely native landscape? Because it becomes complicated. Tried and tested California landscaping templates and plants are common; however, such templates still have to appeal to a broad audience of locales. There is simply not enough demand to merit a high concentration of specialists to the degree required to landscape all areas properly. It’s far easier and cheaper to copy a beautiful template rather than experiment. 

But crucially, it is beautiful. I can confidently say USC’s is the most gorgeous urban native landscaping that I have seen. It’s the first time I have encountered landscaping of this type integrated so seamlessly into its context. Usually, “native landscaping” consists of haphazardly placed, raggedy-looking specimen plants (I’m looking at you, Test Plot). It’s so nice, it’s unjust that it’s inaccurate. It’s why I think we can do better.

The great news is that we can only go up from here. The L.A. Community Forest Advisory Committee released a list of 87 native species approved for usage as street trees, which will pair nicely with the city’s initiative to plant 90,000 new trees. As the city becomes more comfortable bringing back its native plants, hopefully so will USC.

And maybe once again the birds will call to each other through the morning mist, and the wildflowers will unfurl after a chilly March shower. And maybe this time we’ll be able to see it.

Daniel Pons is a sophomore majoring in geodesign writing about USC’s architecture and how it impacts the community. His column, “Walls of Troy,” runs every other Monday.