Jacaranda season and flowering street trees

What it is

The tree comes from north-western Argentina and Bolivia. It flowers in spring: October and November in the southern hemisphere, and from March to June in the north, depending on the city. Pretoria in South Africa has tens of thousands of them and is called the Jacaranda City. Grafton in New South Wales has held a jacaranda festival since the 1930s. Mexico City turns violet around March and April, Lisbon in late May and June, Buenos Aires in November.

Where it comes from

Jacarandas were carried around the world by botanic gardens and nurserymen in the nineteenth century and planted as street trees in new suburbs. In Mexico City their planting is credited to Tatsugoro Matsumoto, a Japanese gardener who settled there and recommended them in place of cherry trees, which did not suit the climate. In Pretoria and Brisbane the bloom falls at examination time, and students have their own lore about it. In Pretoria a flower landing on your head is said to bring luck.

Other flowering trees

Many tropical and subtropical cities have a street-tree season of their own. In India the scarlet gulmohar and the yellow laburnum-like amaltas flower in the heat of April and May, and Bengaluru is known for pink trumpet trees early in the year. In Brazil the yellow and pink ipê trees flower in the dry season. Because the trees are planted in rows of one kind, a whole street turns a single colour at once.

How to take part

1. Find the city's best-known avenues, then check local news or social media for the week of peak bloom.
2. Walk in the early morning, when the fallen flowers are fresh and the streets are quiet.
3. Look for a hill or a tall building to see the colour across the whole city.

Good manners

• Fallen flowers are slippery when wet. Take care on slopes and steps.
• These are residential streets. Keep out of driveways and off garden walls.

The flowers

Royal poincianaA tropical tree with bright red-orange flowers and fern-like leavesGolden showerA tree with long clusters of bright yellow flowers in late spring and early summerPink trumpet-treeA tall tree with pink to purple trumpet-shaped flowers, seen in parks and streetsHandroanthusShowy-flowered trees from Central and South America, valued for timber and ornament

Also part of it, and being written: Jacaranda mimosifolia.

Sources and further reading

• Jacaranda mimosifolia on Wikipedia