Jacaranda mimosifolia D.Don. Jacaranda This is one of the most beautiful and most commonly planted of all subtropical trees, both for its soft ferny foliage and for its beautiful, pale-throated, bluish lavender, tubular flowers, which often cover the whole tree from spring to summer, when it is leafless; no photograph can do justice to the subtle colour. The branching panicles are 25cm (10in) long, and the seed pods are flat and oval, with winged seeds. The deciduous leaves are about 30cm (1ft) long, with narrow pinnate leaflets. Jacaranda mimosifolia is native of dry, open, savannah-type woodland in southern Brazil and northern Argentina.
Cultivation Easily grown in any soil, but needs a warm summer and a dry cool winter to flower freely. In northern Natal and other parts of Africa, flowering is exceptionally good.
Height to 15m (50ft); spread to 6m (20ft). USZ 9–11, surviving -6.5°C (20°F) of overnight frost. Tolerant of summer drought. Z9.