It’s Not Your Imagination. Jacarandas in West Hollywood Are Blooming Early

I was walking down Santa Monica Blvd. last week when it dawned on me. Purple? Already? I’m talking about Jacaranda trees. Have you noticed? 

It wasn’t everywhere, not the full wall-to-wall bloom that shows up when the City pops at once, but scattered blooms — a lot of them. What I had noticed on my street on the Eastside now seemed to be happening in Mid-city and on the Westside too. Jacaranda trees that had no business blooming in March were doing just that. I’ve been watching and loving these trees for 25 years. That was early, by a few weeks at least. Wasn’t it? Turns out, it wasn’t just a hunch.

Why the Trees Moved Early

Frank McDonough’s been a botanist at the L.A. County Arboretum for nearly three decades and says it’s pretty obvious what this is. “We had some rather warm weather after some rather cool weather,” he told KPCC. “And that’s one of the triggers.” And we all know, we seemed to have skipped over winter this year. The trees knew it too.

Which Matters, Because June Is Pride Month

That’s not a throwaway line. At least not to me. The Jacaranda bloom in West Hollywood has always tracked into June and the Boulevard lined in purple canopy during Pride weekend has always felt like something the City planned intentionally. I know they just bloom when they bloom, but for 25 years living here I’ve watched that happen to coincide with the most purple month of the year in a city that wears purple as well as it wears anything. It fits. This year they got a head start. Hopefully they’re still going when Pride arrives.

How They Got Here in the First Place

The Jacaranda isn’t from here. Gold Rush sailors brought it north after encountering it in Buenos Aires. A horticulturist named Kate Sessions used 32 acres of city-owned San Diego land in 1892 to prove it could survive here. She proved the Jacaranda could thrive. By 2010, the count across Greater Los Angeles had reached just under 150,000. West Hollywood ended up with the highest density of any city in the region, about 1,400 per square mile according to Los Angeles Times tree mapping data. The City’s 1.9 square miles. That’s north of 2,600 trees in a place you can walk end to end in under an hour. Walk any residential block in Spring and you’ll believe it.

Love, Hate

I’m in the love camp, always have been. I get it. Some of you are firmly in the hate camp, and it’s usually because of the mess. Either the one on your car or the mess on the sidewalk. I’ll tell you why the mess doesn’t bother me. First of all, it’s not sap. People think it’s sap. It’s not even from the tree. It’s actually aphids moving in when the flowers bloom, feeding on them, and then excreting a sugary waste that somebody in the horticultural world decided to call “honeydew.” Honeydew? More like honey-ewwww.  Here are a couple of tips to help you get through the mess. If you catch it fresh it comes right off with water, no problem. But leave it sitting on a hot car and the stuff starts cooking into your clear coat, and a few days after that you’ve got black sooty mold growing on your hood. If you live on a street lined with Jacarandas get a fresh wax beforehand. This will really help to have the gunk wash off rather easily. Stay on top of it and there’s no permanent damage. The stomped flowers leaving stains on the sidewalk, yeah, that’s not great. But honestly, it’s a good reminder to look up, not down. What I usually do is sweep them off to the side pretty regularly and it builds a nice bed of purple on an otherwise drab parkway. 

In Case You’re Wondering — The Trees Are Fine

Since we’ve been covering what’s happening to West Hollywood’s Tipu trees, the “yellow Jacaranda,” which are in real trouble from a beetle infestation moving through the region. The purple Jacaranda is a different situation entirely. Turns out Jacarandas are tough. Drought-tolerant, heat-tolerant, so successful at colonizing warm climates worldwide that South Africa made them illegal to plant without a permit. The threat here isn’t infestation. It’s climate change and its impact on the bloom. It’s the slow compression of bloom windows as winters warm and the soil timing cues get scrambled earlier and earlier each year. The trees will still be here. But whether they give us three full months of purple every spring or something shorter and weaker is the open question.

This year’s bloom started in March and it’s just getting going. For now, I’m going to appreciate that. So go outside, look up, not down, and enjoy it. Take in the majestic purple everywhere. It’s another reminder of the many gifts our fair City provides.