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On the museum\u2019s rooftop, which includes plants and solar panels.<\/p>\n
(Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
One element that makes California\u2019s mountains, meadows, foothills and valleys so special are their native plants, which have long provided habitat for native species. While there are some native plants and many drought-tolerant plants across the Lucas grounds, there are also surprising gaps. While Angelenos are using water rebates to replace turf with native grasses, expansive non-native lawns blanket the Lucas. Sustainability may have been a focus for the Lucas gardens \u2014 the museum\u2019s website trumpets solar panels on the roof and a rainwater irrigation system \u2014 but its planting choices have room for improvement.<\/p>\n
A native Angeleno, Sarabia is the longtime conservation director for the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy. He has spent decades advocating for the reincorporation of native plants into our built ecosystems for the benefit of animals, insects and humans. In two visits to the museum during its first weeks of operation, he noticed an absence of bees and birds, key indicators of habitat.<\/p>\n
The involved parties seem to grasp the value of promoting the garden as a haven for the creatures that have called our region home for centuries. But the museum has not yet fostered an ideal environment for them. To supply sufficient habitat, the conservation-focused National Wildlife Federation<\/a> recommends a minimum goal of 70% native plants. Locally, the Theodore Payne Foundation<\/a> requires gardens to incorporate at least 50% native plants to be considered for its annual native garden tour.<\/p>\n Stretches of non-native lawn across the Lucas Museum grounds.<\/p>\n (Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The Lucas Museum declined to reveal its percentage of native plants, but native plant experts estimate it doesn\u2019t clear either threshold. One way to measure is calculating biomass, which refers to plant life by weight but is complicated to do. Charles Miller, a native plant expert and chair of the Los Angeles chapter of Al Gore\u2019s Climate Reality Project<\/a>, which empowers climate activists, guessed on the high end that the gardens\u2019 biomass might consist of 35% native plants, including plants native to Northern California. Shrubs and ground covers measure far less than that, but trees boost the number.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would love to work with the Lucas Museum on ways to replace some of the non-native plants here with very easy to care for native plants, that have evolved in the Los Angeles area, that are biodiversity powerhouses that support a lot of wildlife,\u201d said Amina Sharma, the California Native Plant Society<\/a>\u2019s communications manager. \u201cYou know: butterflies, moths, caterpillars, birds. That would do a lot to make this landscape come alive.\u201d<\/p>\n I told the Lucas Museum and Studio-MLA about the experts\u2019 critiques and offers of assistance. They issued a joint statement, asserting that the museum never set a specific target for native plants, but did not respond to the proposition.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, one candidate for City Council District 9, which includes Expo Park, highlighted the institution\u2019s dedication to plants \u201cnatural to California\u201d at a sustainability candidate forum. \u201cAnd I helped make sure they dictated that,\u201d said Jose Ugarte, a former aide to the district\u2019s incumbent councilmember, Curren Price. A Lucas Museum spokesperson said \u201cMr. Ugarte\u2019s description of the project is not accurate.\u201d Ugarte\u2019s campaign office didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe landscape replaced an asphalt parking lot and is built on top of an underground parking structure, which limits soil depth, weight and drainage and shaped which plants could thrive there,\u201d a museum spokesperson said. \u201cIt now provides shade and a free public green space in South Los Angeles, a part of the city with very little park space.\u201d<\/p>\n Hundreds of native plants thrive in containers<\/a> smaller than the soil assembled atop the Lucas parking structure. And no one disputes that a free green space is an improvement on an asphalt lot. Rather, the native plant experts took issue with the possibilities squandered, small and large.<\/p>\n Walking paths abound around the Lucas Museum.<\/p>\n (Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Between a paved path and the floor-to-ceiling windows at the museum\u2019s southern end sits a small, warped segment of grass that is already struggling. Sarabia saw it as a \u201csimple missed opportunity,\u201d a place for specimen plants to draw museum visitors outside. \u201cNobody\u2019s gonna picnic right here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that drives me the most crazy is when somebody uses a non-native tree or shrub or plant when we have a native version that is very similar aesthetically,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWhy do we need to use the other one at all?\u201d<\/p>\n The gardens feature several such instances. Rather than plant Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii), a locally native species known to be in decline, designers opted for strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), a species native to the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n \u201cMadrone is very similar and is a host species for varied larvae species,\u201d Miller said, \u201cwhich strawberry tree will never be.\u201d<\/p>\n Although beautiful, drought-tolerant, native options are available, the vast lawns are made up of non-native grasses. Across the garden, designers drew inspiration from Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania and South America, ignoring, among others, the Ceanothus and California buckwheats (Eriogonum fasciculatum) that grow all around them. Lehrer told the New York Times<\/a> that jacarandas and bougainvilleas, native to South America and favorites of George Lucas, had to be included in the gardens.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no need to bring plants in from all over the world when you have every native plant here that can meet the same needs,\u201d Sharma said. \u201cNow that they\u2019re here, it\u2019s not a matter of taking out this non-native tree, but thinking how can we augment the space around it now to support life.\u201d<\/p>\n Outdoor seating cuts through deep green grass.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Sharma and Sarabia said even a handful of local additions could make a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s as simple as starting to replace some plants or adding native plants in here, and that difference can be made pretty quickly,\u201d Sarabia said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen it in so many instances: If you build it, they will come. You plant a milkweed, monarchs show up the very next season.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller\u2019s mindset is more aggressive. While many native plant advocates promote a blended approach to lower the barrier of entry to this kind of landscaping, he believes Los Angeles should require most new garden projects, including this one, to be 100% native. That\u2019s what\u2019s necessary, he said, to approach, city-wide, the 70% threshold the wildlife federation recommends.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just have too much data that says that we really, really critically need this, and the city of Los Angeles has failed really awfully over the last century-plus,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWe\u2019re just bringing a chunk of another ecosystem and patting ourselves on the back for it, saying we\u2019re somehow adapting to the damage that we\u2019ve done to the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n As ecologist Doug Tallamy has chronicled, over 90% of herbivorous insects specialize on one or a few native plant lineages.<\/p>\n \u201cThus, ecosystems dominated by nonnative plants are characterized by reduced insect diversity, abundance, and biomass,\u201d Tallamy and two co-authors wrote in a 2018 study<\/a>. \u201cGiven that the majority of terrestrial birds rely on insects as a primary food source for reproduction and survival, the persistence of insectivorous bird populations is inextricably linked to insect conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n To find a better example of a garden with a true focus on native plants, curious visitors need not travel far. At the nearby Natural History Museum, California fuchsia (Epilobium canum) abounds, in bloom through October, alongside an array of plants native to Southern California.<\/p>\n \u201cJust cross the street,\u201d Sarabia said. \u201cYou see this beautiful native plant garden as soon as you do, providing so much habitat value.\u201d<\/p>\n The hanging garden at the Lucas Museum gives off Disneyland vibes.<\/p>\n (Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793310613_148_.jpeg\")
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