There’s a love-hate relationship with purple trees in Orange County that happens every Spring. Although they actually bloom twice a year, usually in late May or early June, and again in the fall, the pre-summer flowering is much bigger, and messier, than the fall.
If you drive around the county, mostly in the north, you’ll see a beautiful reminder of the changing season - the Jacaranda Tree. And, if you live under the flowering tree you probably spend a fair amount of time cleaning your car and trying to stop the purple petals from getting inside your house.
There are 49 species of jacaranda trees, but the one that’s most common in Southern California is the Jacaranda mimosifolia, also known as the "blue jacaranda,".
The Jacaranda is a native to tropical and subtropical regions of Central America, South America, Cuba, Hispaniola and the Bahamas. This species of tree originated from South America and was first planted in Southern California about a century ago. Most of the ones in Orange County came with the building of post-World War II homes.
