The Importance of Botanical Gardens

The 127-acre Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden is an arboretum, botanical garden, and historical site located in Arcadia, California. The facility is managed through a private-public collaboration between the Los Angeles Arboretum Foundation and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. The mission of the Arboretum is to cultivate its natural, horticultural and historic resources for learning, enjoyment and inspiration.

In this essay, writer Yxta Maya Murrary discusses her experiences and observations of the Arboretum which she and her husband became members of during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, she adopts a new hobby of "therapeutic photography" and talks about her interesting run-ins with the peafowls which are commonplace at the Arboretum. According to the Arboretum's website, the species of peafowl at the Arboretum are Indian Peafowl which are members of the pheasant family. The species is named Pavo cristatus with cristatus referring to the peafowls’ crest. The male birds are called peacocks, the female birds are peahens, and the offspring are peachicks. Although the term “peacock” is often used when referring to the species as a whole, the collective term for both genders is peafowl.