Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden

After a couple of fun posts (here, here) from this garden it's time to get down to business! That means a formal post of photos from my visit to the LA County Arboretum and Botanic Garden: 127 "historical" acres near the San Gabriel Mountains in Arcadia, California.Naturally this big bad pair of agaves at the entrance had to be photographed, I love how they appear to be crawling over the wall.
Agave gypsicola, in the Desert Display Garden.
More of the Desert Display Garden...
Agave stricta?
It had a great bloom spike whatever it was.
Echinopsis pachanoi, aka San Pedro cactus.

I feel like I rarely see Agave bracteosa in SoCal, this was a welcome exception—well unless it's actually Agave vilmoriniana, then that's more expected. They're usually easy to tell apart, but from this angle I'm not so sure.
The locals are very colorful.
Xanthorrhoea, I think I momentarily strayed into the Australian Garden...
Before wandering into this walled garden space, with its ginormous opuntia tree.
Equally ginormous cycad.
And shapely Agave 'Joe Hoak'.
Back to Australia now, one of the acacias, not sure which one as I obviously thought the blooms were more important than the foliage, can you blame me?
Brachychiton australis seed pods.
Macrozamia macleayi, a species of cycad in the Zamiaceae family.

Didn't see a name for this eucalyptus with the sweet blooms.
I was momentarily confused by the small volcanoes around the cordylines, then I realized they were piles of mulch.
Bismarckia nobilis, which hails from western and northern Madagascar.
Fruit of the Bismarckia nobilis

Now entering the Madagascar Spiny Forest!
Alluaudia procera, or Madagascar ocotillo
Pachypodium lamerei
Folotsia grandiflora
I tried to find out more about this strange creature online but came up empty.
Moving on to the Aloe Trail, Aloe 'Rooikappie'.
Aloe marlothii


Euphorbia polygona, I think?
Euphorbia polygona 'Snowflake' 

I wonder what creatures live in that curly aloe skirt?

Aloe ramosissima/Aloidendron ramosissimum
More curly skirts, on tall plants!
That sun and blue sky was so welcome in November, and we're finally getting some of that here now in late June!
Finally, a few silver Echium wildpretti I spied on my way over to the Prehistoric Forest and a bunch of aliens.