Jacarandas are in Full Bloom

by Soso
(Pretoria, South Africa)

Jacarandas in Pretoria

Jacarandas in Pretoria

Why I love October in Pretoria

The Jacarandas are in full bloom and purple is a mood lifting colour. Driving around I couldn't help but smiled at the colour purple. The colour purple on tree tops. The colour purple carpeting the roads. Its quite symbolic.

Last Saturday, the fine weather sent me and my family to the Union Buildings. Mingling with the tourists there and feeling a bit like one, with my camera I snapped these beautiful purple photos. I'm in love with this city. Not only because of the Jacarandas, but because it is indeed a sophisticated city. Nothing as loud as Joburg yet nothing as quiet as the Cape. Somewhat peaceful.

Thank God for outsourcing the driving, I could take as much photos on the way back home. I'm so grateful for flowers at the moment, even more so the purple ones.

I challenge someone to share their own jacaranda photos.

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Jul 08, 2011
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jacaranda
by: Anonymous

Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) Pretoria in now called the Jacaranda City and most people thinks that Jacaranda trees are native at Pretoria while they were imported from Argentina. The tree is native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America, the Caribbean and Mexico. There are more than 50 000 trees in South Africa now [1]. The trees are found in enormous numbers since they are planted as street trees, in parks and gardens. During flowering time the city appears to be purple/blue in colour because of the jacaranda flowers. There is also a myth that says ?if a flower from a Jacaranda tree drops on your head, you will pass all your exams? [2].

Jacaranda has 49 species of flowering plants which belongs to the family Bignoniaceae. The Blue Jacaranda is a tree which is 5 to 15 metres tall. The bark is greyish-brown in colour and rough. The bark is only smooth when the tree is still young. The twigs are thin and turn to be ziz-zag in shape and they are reddish-brown in colour. The flowers of the Blue Jacaranda are 5 centimetres long, grouped in 30 centimetre panicles. It flowers in spring and early summer and the flowers last for two months. The seeds are found in the woody pods and they are 5 centimetres in diameter. The woody pods contain numerous winged seeds inside. The leaves are 45 centimetres long and compound. The leaflets are up to 1 centimetre long [3].

The Blue Jacaranda likes to grow in a place where there is no risk of frost and they can tolerate the temperature of -7ºC. The Blue jacaranda is regarded as a naturalised species in Miami-Dade country, Florida and Hawaii while in South Africa, Queensland and Australia is referred as invasive. The Blue Jacaranda prevent grow of native species by consuming a lot of water [3].

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