George Harrison memorial tree in Los Angeles killed by beetles

A tree planted in a Los Angeles park in memory of the late George Harrison of the Beatles has been killed by beetles, a city councilor said.

Tom LaBonge, whose district includes Griffith Park, said the Japanese black pine tree, planted about 12 years ago, would be replaced in November.

The four-metre-high tree succumbed to bark beetles thriving in the vast and popular inner-city park amid one of California's worst droughts in years.

"A number of trees in Griffith Park has been hit by this beetle," LaBonge said.

The tree stood about 300 metres from the Griffith Observatory, made famous in the knife-fighting scene in the 1955 movie Rebel Without A Cause starring the late James Dean.

Harrison, the Beatles' lead guitarist as well as a chart-topping solo artist and avid gardener, lived in Los Angeles prior to his death in 2001.