It is one of my favourite times of the year in Los Angeles. It rained a few days ago and so the air is clear, the sky is blue, and the sunlight is now clear and crisp on everything it touches. On days like this I cycle right past the bus stop and go all the way into work on the bike. There are flowers in gardens everywhere. (There are also wild flowers along the sides of the freeways, for drivers who care to look.) There are flowering trees all over the city.
In particular, there are several long stretches of many blocks all over LA that almost convince you that the city was going completely purple. This is because of the spectacular Jacaranda tree:
Learn more about this lovely tree here. I learned that the horticulturalist Kate Sessions (1857-1940) is responsible for importing and popularising the Jacaranda in Southern California. Learn more about her here and here.
-cvj
May 24th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Del Mar Avenue in Pasadena?
May 24th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Been a lot of flowering of the trees here, although I have at the same time discovered that I am not entirely insensitive to large doses of tree pollen. Still, it’s worth it, I think.
May 25th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
They are spectacular. Pretoria, South Africa, is so filled with them
that it is known as the “Jacaranda City”. However, in South Africa
they have been declared an invasive exotic, and no new plantings
are allowed; even in private gardens you are liable to be fined if
found out. Hopefully California is keeping an eye on the potential
problem.
May 25th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
For a spectacular view, find a tall building downtown. Go up high. Look out the window. The sidewalks are a beautiful smoky lavender from the dropped petals.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
Yes, I was just gonna say that Del Mar Ave is like that. Caltech borders it, I think there are some near there. City of Pasadena has a program for “pretty trees”, you can’t cut them down. It’s been so dry here, that the Magnolia tree on my property has had large branches completely fall off! I don’t water the lawn, so basically by summer my lawn is dirt with “yellow grass”. LA is basically populated desert. You can find my house real easy from Caltech, it’s the one that looks like the one on The Munsters (1313 Mockingbird Lane), it looks like an “abandoned house”..according to my neighbor. I’ve only had a handful of people come inside in the 22 yrs I’ve lived here, & many of them get “spooked/creeped out”. I had one guy in a couple weeks ago, & he called me a “Mad Scientist”. “My reputaton precedes me”
May 29th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
[...] One of the reasons I like this blog is the extended community that we have been able to build, due to all of you who read us, spread the word about us, and carry on the discussions offline. Thanks. We have readers from quite a diverse set of walks of life, careers, ages, and locations. I think that the letter I received a few days ago was from one of the most remote locations I can think of on this planet. I find it quite exciting! The writer, Denis Barkats, permitted me to reproduce it here: I browse you guys’ blog now and then and I have to admit I really enjoy it. I decided to write to you today about the post named Jacaranda time, because I know exactly the feeling when those start blooming in the LA area and given my current situation, It has a special ring to me right now. I am a postdoc at Caltech with Andrew Lange’s observational cosmology group. And I clearly remember the time when I came to interview for the position during the Month of Mai. I could not belive the intense color of those trees (Jacaranda trees whose names I did not know at the time). I absolutely loved it and eventually accepted the postdoc offer ( not just for the trees). And right now, seeing your post on your blog, I am reminded at how beautiful spring can be in Pasadena. Right now, I am at the South Pole at the US Amundsen-Scott South pole station. I’m the winterover for the BICEP experiment (a CMB polarization telescope aiming to look for B-mode polarization).We are in the middle of the austral winter. It’s -80F outside on average although it can dip down to -100F sometimes. It’s pitch dark. And we are in the middle of a sterile, arid, desertic, moon-like landscape, at 11000ft, on the polar plateau. So the sight of the deep purple trees, strikes a special string in my memory. Anyway, so enjoy the spring there. [...]