Summer's Heralds

They are immigrants here, not natives. They belong not to North America, but to the southern part of our hemisphere. How they got here is not entirely clear. Much of the time they pass unnoticed. Perhaps they would remain unnoticed except for a certain tendency toward flamboyance.

It is a tendency that seems to erupt around the same time every year – the point at which spring turns into summer, when parts of Los Angeles suddenly seem wreathed in a lavender halo.

The Jacaranda bloom arrives abruptly, usually in late May or early June, in time to herald the summer heat, then fades in the course of July. By then, the lavender halo has turned into a lavender shadow, as sticky blooms drop from the trees and carpet lawns and sidewalks, and the branches once again turn to the concealment of unassuming green.

While it lasts, however, the eruption of color adds beauty and charm to the city’s canopy.

Pictured, a stand of jacarandas in the Miracle Mile district.