liquidambar

Acers colour up wonderfully and many cherries manage fiery autumn tints, but for sheer over-the-top bonfire brightness, you can't beat a liquidambar.

Pear trees grow on Sawyer, jacarandas on Guthrie, and liquidambars on the traffic island at Genesee and Fairfax.

Liquidambars prefer a moisture retentive but well-drained soil that is neutral or slightly acidic and full sun to get the best autumn colour.

Many of the trees and shrubs recommended for autumn colour - acers, parrotias, Liquidambars and the like - don't seem to thrive in cold or windy gardens.

Circling roots (shown at left), more common among liquidambars, sycamores, and tupelos, can choke a tree and stunt its growth.

And they are taught to maintain the more than 1,000 species of trees that coexist together in Los Angeles -- from Siberian elms to Southeastern liquidambars.

Experts say some species of trees, including liquidambars, sycamores and eucalyptus, have undergone more stress this summer because of triple-digit temperatures.

Every summer, the muscular branches of the hulking liquidambars planted decades ago by the city have sagged lower as they've aged and gotten heavier.