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Purple tree photography12/23/2023 ![]() ![]() The papery, winged seeds inside flutter and spin as they are whisked away by the breeze. About a year later, the pods split open, rather like a little mouth. As the lacy leaves grow, two-inch-long seedpods dry and turn brown on the tree. In some places too chilly for jacarandas to bloom, these trees are grown just for their delicate-looking, fernlike leaves: small leaflets are arranged in rows, one on each side of a leaf’s midrib, and each of those leaflets is further divided in the same fashion. On some college campuses, the earliest jacaranda blossoms are a sign that final exams are approaching, and a blooming jacaranda has been known to trigger stress in students who have not yet begun studying in earnest!Īs the flowers fade, seeds develop in tough, flattened oval pods, and new leaves sprout. Jacaranda leaves are “bipinnately compound.” That means that each leaf consists of 13 to 31 “pinnae” (divisions, or leaflets), and each pinnae consists of even smaller, elongated leaflets. ![]() Of course, while some people love the purple-carpet effect of a jacaranda’s fallen blossoms, the sticky flower “litter” exasperates others. Flowers last about eight weeks before falling to the ground. The myriad blossoms provide an excellent nectar source for pollinators, luring bees and birds. Planted in well-drained soil and full sun, a jacaranda will reward you with dappled shade and a show that begins in spring, when the leaves drop and inch-long, tubular flowers burst forth in foot-long clusters at the tips of every branch. Though they don’t tolerate extended periods of freezing temperatures, they are drought- and heat-tolerant. Popular shade and street trees in Southern California, jacarandas do require ample space to grow-a mature tree can be 40 feet tall and 30 feet wide. ![]() “White jacarandas are pretty rare, so it’s cool that we have some in our collection,” she says. Their donation included several white-flowering jacarandas J. “The Village Garden Club of La Jolla donated several jacarandas to the Safari Park some 20 or so years ago,” says Linda Post, horticulture manager at the Safari Park. Visitors can find jacarandas throughout the Safari Park, too, with a particularly impressive stand of the trees in the guest parking area. Many of them were planted 100 years ago by horticulturist Kate Sessions. Jacarandas provide shade and beauty in Balboa Park, as well as other areas of San Diego. In honor of her contributions, Kate Sessions has been called the “Mother of Balboa Park.” Many of them are still standing, and they continue to provide shade and beauty throughout Balboa Park. Nurtured by her green thumb, exotic palms and trees-including lots of jacarandas-soon flourished in the once-weedy City Park. As part of the lease agreement and in exchange for using the land as a commercial nursery, she agreed to plant 100 new trees per year in City Park and provide the city with another 300 trees for public landscaping. In 1892, Kate Sessions leased 32 acres of land in an area then known as City Park (renamed Balboa Park in 1910) from the City of San Diego. A short career as a teacher gave way to a lifetime of horticulture and landscaping that influences San Diego to this day. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley-one of the first women to do so-with a degree in natural science, she moved to San Diego. We can thank 19th-century San Diego horticulturist and landscape designer Kate Sessions for helping plant the jacaranda firmly in our hearts. (The official native tree is the Torrey pine). In fact, the jacaranda is the official urban tree of the city of San Diego. It’s 58 feet high, 98 inches around the trunk, and more than 73 feet across the spread of the branches. The largest documented jacaranda tree is north of San Diego, in Santa Ana, California. ![]()
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