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IT’S JACARANDA TIME!

Yes, another wonderful sign that spring is in full gear here is the blooming of the jacaranda trees (Jacaranda mimosifolia) – mostly lining streets in towns as these trees were favoured by municipalities a long time ago for ornamental purposes. Look at these beautiful blossoms photographed in Bathurst. You can see that some of the dark pods have already formed.

Jacaranda trees are not indigenous to South Africa, having been introduced from Brazil in the early nineteenth century. Apparently the first jacaranda tree in Johannesburg was planted in Doornfontein. You can see the structure of this jacaranda tree growing outside the St. John’s Church in Bathurst – there is a single cluster of blossoms on the left of the photograph.

Should you consult Google about jacaranda trees in South Africa, you will be overwhelmed by beautiful photographs taken in Pretoria (justifiably called the ‘Jacaranda City’) and Johannesburg. They do, however grow elsewhere in the country and there are a lot of them lining the streets of our town. Note the carpet of flowers covering the street as well as the cows on the pavements!

I particularly enjoy the sight of the carpets of mauve flowers underneath them. As you can see from the photograph above and below, cows like to eat the flowers too. This is the cow seen on the left of the above picture.

Their beautiful purple-mauve flowers can be a mixed blessing though, for when they drop from the trees they tend to form lush carpets which cover the streets and pavements with a slippery goo in time. More than one pedestrian has slipped and even fallen as a result of walking over a mushed carpet of these flowers. Another danger lurking amidst these colourful carpets are bees! Several jacarandas grow along the street where I live.

I am not aware of a particular fragrance of the flowers on the trees, although once on the ground, they take on a musty smell as they rot which is not unpleasant. Here is an avenue of jacaranda trees on the campus of St. Andrew’s College in Grahamstown.

31 thoughts on “IT’S JACARANDA TIME!”

  3. We pass a Jacaranda Blvd. in Southwest Florida every time we go to visit my wife’s father, and we often stop to eat at a restaurant located under those trees. They have no roaming cows there, though!

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