What would Los Angeles be like without the almost 30,000 jacaranda trees on the city streets?
It depends on who you ask.
“The tree represents the worst of California: all flash, no substance, a pain that others must clean up, inspiration for a thousand delusions and a million excuses,” wrote Gustavo Arellano of the Times in a 2022 column titled “Why I Hate the Trees.” jacarandas.” Evan Meyer, executive director of the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants, noted last year that trees like the jacaranda, native to Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, are not beneficial to Los Angeles wildlife.
Despite their non-native status and their infuriating tendency to cover cars and sidewalks with slippery blooms that attract aphids, jacaranda trees have their admirers, especially now that streets, highways and medians are saturated with blooms. bluish purple color. There are more than 58,000 in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Lora Hall, urban forester for the city of San Marino, which has about 270 jacaranda trees and two new ones recently planted, says residents generally love them. So much so that when she requests feedback on replacing dead or damaged trees, residents often choose jacaranda. “Our population prefers flowering trees to non-flowering trees,” she says. The jacarandas are “second only to our displays of ginkgo, which turn gold in the fall.”
Michael King, forestry program coordinator for the city of Pasadena, which has nearly 2,000 jacarandas, or Jacaranda mimosifolia, says the tree's popularity likely spread throughout Southern California, including Pasadena, “as other horticulturists and homeowners liked the purple flowers and the tree's ability to thrive in our local climate.” According to the Official List of City Street Trees published in 1940 by the City Parks Department, the jacaranda tree is listed as the official street tree for Del Monte and Paloma streets.
While jacaranda trees inspire a love-hate relationship, their benefits include their resilience compared to most tree species, says Lisa Smith, certified master arborist and tree instructor for the Extension Landscape Architecture program. UCLA.
“The city of Los Angeles would lack tree canopy without many non-natives,” he says. “While it is always good to plant native plants to grow our urban canopy, we need greater species diversity, which we can achieve by using climate-tolerant species.”
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As for density, Smith believes some parts of Southern California like Pasadena have higher concentrations because the trees thrive in warm conditions. “You'll find this species most often in warmer, inner-city areas,” he says.
As an example, Smith points to the jacaranda tree planted in the median along Wilshire Boulevard near the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. “They were installed for the Democratic convention over a decade ago,” she says. Today, “they sway and thrive, even in that windy, harsh, hot island of a place.”
Flowering trees, which grow 25 to 40 feet tall and can be as wide, became popular in Los Angeles during the 1920s and 1930s thanks to the efforts of botanist Kate Sessions, who introduced more than 100 species in San Diego in 1892.
Jacaranda trees typically bloom in June, but can bloom any time of year depending on conditions such as light, heat, rain, or pruning.
If you're wondering where you can see jacarandas in Los Angeles and Orange counties, The Times compiled all the publicly available tree data we could find. Jacaranda-rich areas include Santa Ana (nearly 4,200), Anaheim (2,000), Pasadena, Santa Monica (1,050), and the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood (940). Areas with the most jacaranda trees per square mile include West Hollywood (1,400), West Los Angeles (639), and Beverly Grove (720).
And here are some specific streets where you can find jacarandas. In Pasadena, Ranger King recommends East Del Mar Boulevard (from Arroyo Parkway to Lake Avenue); Del Monte Street (North Arroyo Boulevard to Lincoln Avenue); and Paloma Street (from Allen Avenue to Altadena Drive). In San Marino, Hall recommends Monterey Road (from Garfield Avenue to Old Mill Road).
According to mapping data, other jacaranda-lined streets include Oakhurst and Palm Drives (from Burton Way to Santa Monica Boulevard) in Beverly Grove; Palm and Alta Drives (from Santa Monica Boulevard to Sunset Avenue) in Beverly Hills; Poinsettia Place and the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in West Hollywood; Whittier Drive along Holmby Park, outside Westwood; and South Garnsey Street (from West McFadden to West Wilshire avenues) in Santa Ana.
— Brittany Levine Beckman contributed to this report.
