Jacarandas at Torrens Park

Thanks for all of your very kind comments, stars and hearts for my Crab Spider yesterday that helped make it to the Spotlight.

I seem to have a bit of a love affair with Jacarandas. Back on November 17th last year I blipped a closeup of a branch of Jacaranda blossom. Then on November 24th one week later I blipped an Adelaide street-scape of Jacarandas.

Here we are almost exactly one year later and we are nearing the end of our Jacaranda season Most of them are starting to lose their vibrant purple colour. This shot was taken in a street near our home, and what attracted me was the purple and green against the background of the very pleasing blue sky. You can see a seed pod on the right.

Purple and green against blue looks better in LARGE.

Jacaranda trees have been adopted wholeheartedly by Australia. You can almost say we have appropriated them from their native South Africa. Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as The Jacaranda City due to the enormous number of Jacaranda trees planted as street trees and in parks and gardens. In flowering time the city appears blue/purple in colour when seen from the nearby hills because of all the Jacaranda trees.

Adelaide seems to have copied Pretoria, where our City and Suburban Councils have used jacarandas to line many of our streets and avenues.
The city of Grafton on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia, is also famous for its Jacarandas.

Each year in late October and early November the city has a Jacaranda festival during the period of full bloom.
Jacarandas are also popular in the southern and central parts of Florida and the southwestern United States, notably in Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.

In many parts of the world, such as Mexico, Los Angeles, Lisbon, Seville and Zimbabwe the blooming of this tree is welcomed as a sign of spring.
Jacaranda can also be found in the South China Karst (a World Heritage site). The Chinese are extremely clever and use the leaves to make a distinctive purple dye.