Walk just around the corner from the Del Mar Gold Line station and you will see a mile long parade of Jacaranda trees blooming along Del Mar Blvd. It is a glorious sight! But a fleeting one. The jacarandas are already beginning to drop their beautiful purple flowers and put out their new bright green leaves.
These jacarandas--and all others in Southern California--are the descendants of trees brought back from Brazil by one of the earliest Directors of the Los Angeles Arboretum. The Arboretum was founded with the aim of finding flowering trees that could possibly grow in Southern California, then testing them for viability in our climate, then making the trees available to plant nurseries. The first Arboretum expedition in search of flowering trees went to Australia and came back with acacias and eucalyptus. These tres are still alive and growing in the northern part of the Arboretum.
It was several years later that another expedition went to Brazil, home to the Jacaranda. They brought young trees back and within years jacarandas become one of the most popular trees in Southern California--even if they are a bit messy.
It is definitely worth the trip on the Gold Line to the Del Mar Station to see this annual blossoming!
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