Pretoria is often called the 'Jakaranda' city by virtue of the thousands of Jakaranda trees that grace it's streets. The tree's flowers blossom in October and bathe the city in a cloak of purple. The city looks absolutely beautiful during early summer, especially when viewed from the hill tops, under the blanket of purple Jakarandas.
The Jakaranda is not indigenous to South Africa. It originates from Brazil and was brought to Pretoria in the early 20 th century and planted along the streets of the inner city. It does appear in many parts of the surrounding areas of Tshwane (the greater metropolitan area) including Johannesburg. It is now considered an invader (non indigenous) plant and legislation prohibits the distribution and planting of the trees in South Africa. Trees that are removed are not replaced.
This photo was taken looking up Bourke street in Mukkleneuk with the Telkom communications tower rising above the trees. I often used to run up this street which rises steeply near the top and passes over into Groenkloof.
3 comments:
Tree-lined streets are always so inviting.
We grow the tree in the southern part of Florida. We spell it a little different. Here it's Jacaranda. The older trees bloom only once in the spring. Now we have a type that blooms a second time in mid summer. People that don't know their trees think it's a purple poinciana.
Thanks for joining our group.
Thanks Tog. 'Jacaranda' is probably the correct spelling. In South Africa we use the Afrikaans language version where the 'c' is substituted with a 'k'. The letter 'c' has very little usage in Afrikaans.
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