In my home language, we refer to Pretoria (a city in Gauteng) as the "Jakaranda stad" or Jacaranda city. This is very obvious when you walk in the streets in springtime. Purple flowers color the streets and the ground. It actually looks like purple snow. Everywhere you drive, you see these beautiful big trees covering the roads, but you also see all the flowers it drops. It makes for a really pretty scene.
A purple tarp or rug. Apparently, when it rains it becomes very slippery. I do not want to be that person slipping on them! Me being me, I bent down to take a close-up of the flowers. When they dry up, they become very brittle. It is very poisonous, so my mind did not even wonder too long about the idea of making Jacaranda tea.
The flowers hang on the tips of the branches and they look like little bells. Every time I walk past them, I think of bells ringing or something along those lines. It is really something to witness up close.
These trees that cover so many streets in Pretoria (and Johannesburg) is actually not indigenous to South Africa. They are, in fact, a big problem.
You are not allowed to plant Jacaranda trees in South Africa due to the fact, that they are actually a threat to local plants and trees. Not that this is any concern for the people really. I mean, the streets are already "dead" spaces. But they do make a pretty scene.
And this is where an interesting dilemma comes in: people are fifty/fifty about them. Some people do not care, saying that they are not local and that they should be cut down. Others are vehemently protecting them, claiming heritage and cultural reasons. This research article deals with some of these feelings.
Again, they are really beautiful when in full bloom.
The famous South African poet wrote a poem about the flowers blooming in the October months. I will translate the first verse.
Viooltjies in die voorhuis,
Viooltjies blou en rooi!
Viooltjies orals op die veld,
En orals, ai, so mooi!
small violins on the porch
small violins blue and red
small violins all over the veld
all over, o, so pretty
But why all these trees? Why them? Funny, history is always funny. Not to get too political in a nature post, but one cannot really avoid the topic. Colonialism. Or more abstract, people from Euro-America (the west) that wanted to import everything from the west to Africa. Reading the history of how these trees came about, especially on page 68 of this research article, one is struck with how either stupid or genius these early explorers were.
In Afrikaans, my home language, we have a saying: Nou sit ons met die gebakte pere. Directly translated, it says: now we sit with the baked pears. What it means is that we are sitting with the problems of peoples' decisions back then.
Why would one plant trees and other plants from another country thousands of miles away and not cultivate the local trees and plants? Sometimes I think humans are the most idiotic, but again genius as well. Again, the streets are so beautiful.
Apparently, if one reads the above-mentioned article, various botanists and travelers planted trees, donated trees, and so on. Now, the streets are lined with these majestic monsters.
Photographs do not do justice to the immense beauty. The photograph above and below are from the same street, just different ways, up and down. Imagine seeing this every morning.
How do you convince most of your town to plant trees that you love without forcing them through violence and other means? Apparently, one single man is responsible for a lot of these trees. He convinced people to uproot other trees and plants so that the Jacaranda trees could be planted because of the possible threat these most likely indigenous plants had on the infrastructure (see page 71).
That is how you convince people of your ideology.
It is incredible to think that one man is responsible for almost 70 000 trees in one city (page 72). In today's overly medicalized world, we might have diagnosed this man with a mild case of obsession with one particular tree.
I always think about the possibilities of growing food on these large scales in urban settings. Imagine this guy responsible for all these trees had in mind the changing times and he planted nuts and fruit trees.
But one needs to remember that these people do not always have the prosperity of everyone in mind, only a select few.
I have said this too much, but the beauty of these trees cannot be overstated. You drive through the streets and you feel as if you are in an enchanted town.
But then you remember that all these trees are from the same species. Imagine a sickness befalling these trees and they all die. Akin to not placing all their money in one basket, they took a gamble to focus on only one tree.
And I cannot stop to think about these trees as one man's obsession. One can only wonder what went on in his head.
I love plants and trees, but I love diversity. These old colonial minds did not like diversity, difference, or chaos. They wanted to control everything, even nature. So they got rid of diversity for the sake of sameness, and oneness. One cannot help but think: these are the same trees for miles on end.
But those are old days, and in 2022 we are more focused on diversity and difference. More local farmers are also becoming more aware of multi-cropping. But how did our minds get so stuck on sameness? Control I guess.
The image on the right is on the University of Pretoria's campus. It is said that when one of these flowers falls on your head, you will pass all of your tests.
Or that you will pass them with distinctions, or something like that.
Maybe I should sit under that tree and see what wisdom befalls me.
Alas, we can only ponder the beauty of these trees, even though their history is tainted with outmoded thinking.
All of the photographs are my own, taken with my iPhone. The musings are also my own, where not all of the sources are linked. I hope you enjoyed this post, although a little political. Alas, it is still beautiful and colors the sky with amazing purple. Stay safe.
