It’s that time of the year again when our streets bloom into a vibrant shade of purple, thanks to the splendid sight of the jacaranda trees. Their colour ranges from deep indigo to lighter lilac blue, adding a beautiful touch of colour to many of our towns and cities. However, their fallen debris is an annual arch nemesis for some, especially for those of us who have a jacaranda tree right next to a sundeck. It might surprise you that despite their prevalence, they aren’t actually native to Portugal, or even Europe, for that matter.
During the 19th century, Portugal’s father of botany, Felix Avlar Brotero, brought the first jacaranda tree to Lisbon from Brazil, offering its seeds to whoever wanted to cultivate them in the city. Given that the Royal Court of Portugal had returned from 13 years in exile in Brazil following Napoleon’s invasion, the colour purple was often seen as a symbol of royal power.
Upon the return of King João VI, he ordered that all botanical gardens in Portugal should be opened to the public every Thursday. With the royal seal of approval, the symbolic purple petals of the jacaranda slowly but surely filled parks, avenues and gardens across the country, surprisingly surviving the revolution that saw the overthrow of the Portuguese monarchy to form the first republic in 1910. The abundance of jacaranda trees that we see today is just a small reminder of a bygone era when monarchical support was popular in Portugal.
Native to South America, the jacaranda or Jacaranda mimosifolia was ideally suited to Portugal’s warmer climates. The conditions south of the Tagus River imitate its natural habitat across the Atlantic, albeit making it flower later, i.e. in late springtime in Europe. Described as a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the Bignoniaceae family, the tropical plant of the Americas owes its name to the Tupi language, a native dialect from Brazil, where the word jacaranda is pronounced jakara’na, meaning ‘fragrant’.
While many of Portugal’s jacarandas bloom throughout late springtime, the two specimens in Lisbon’s Botanical Gardens flower in the summer. This is because they are the few originals brought to Portugal from South America well over a century ago and the first to become acclimatised to their new habitat.
If you find yourself away from the Algarve´s bloom season, don’t be downhearted. There is still plenty of time to see avenidas of jacarandas in full bloom across the capital, notably on Largo do Rato, Parque Eduardo VII and Avenida da Torre Belém.
So, get your cameras out as we enjoy the spring bloom, and get ready for those sticky pavements covered in jacaranda petals. As they say, beauty comes at a price.
