Spring has sprung here at Lake Chapala and there are trees covered with pastel flowers blooming all through the area.
While most visitors to Lakeside are convinced that the area is blessed nearly perfect spring-like weather all year round, those who live here come to realize that there are four distinct seasons, each with its own array of blooming trees, vines, shrubs and flowers.
Last week in Spring Flowers – Part 2 we featured the earliest flowering spring trees, the yellow and pink primaveras, the shaving brush tree and the powder puff tree.
This week, ah this week the lacy purple jacaranda trees have come into full bloom. While these flowers throw much of the population into fits of allergies, I think that the incredible periwinkle-lavender blue color is well worth the sneezing, itchy eyes and post nasal drip.
Jacarandas in Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel
In New York Times best-selling American novelist Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel set in Mexico, The Lacuna, she describes the blooming jacarandas in Mexico City:
The jacaranda in the courtyard has put on its bloom. This purple can’t be ignored, it’s like a tree singing. The walk down Londres Street to the market is a concert: the small jacaranda on the corner hums the tuning note, then all others in the lane join in. Even Perpetua has a light in her eye, holding one hand to her flat old bosom as she takes the cucumbers out of the market basket, one by one.
From Lev’s study, the view from the end window is a solid blaze of purple. Van sits there to take dictation from the Ediphone, with his square profile framed against the window like Poseidon in a purple sea. Or some Teutonic god who causes all the touches, and the air itself, to burst into purple flames.
The Color Purple
The shower of purple blossoms that drift with the breeze onto streets and lawns reminds me of the line from The Color Purple: “I think it pissed God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it.”
How could you walk past blooming jacarandas and not notice.
Just as amazing to me are the folks who are upset because the trees are dropping flowers on their sidewalks. They complain endlessly about the garbage, the mess and the bother. in my world how can beautiful purple flowers be a mess or a bother?
Jacaranda
Common name: fern tree, jacaranda.
Spanish: framboyán azul or jacarandá
Botanical: jacaranda acutifolia
There are nearly 50 species of jacarandas in the Western Hemisphere but it is difficult to believe that any could be more beautiful than the large delicate trees of Lake Chapala. The flowers bloom on the bare branches and after the flowers have drifted to the ground, the fern-like leaves appear.
When the tiny, violet, bluebell-shaped flowers fall from the tree, an equally beautiful, lavender carpet of petals is formed on the ground. The bark and fern-like leaves of the caroba, as it is known in Brazil, are sometimes used for their curative powers. Walking through the purple carpets on the sidewalks and streets of La Floresta and many other areas of Lakeside will cure most any ailment or mood, unless you are one of the unfortunate people who are allergic to the trees' pollen.
Orchid Trees
Common names: casco de buey (ox hoof), Brazilian butterfly flower tree
Spanish: palo de orchideas (branch of orchids) or urape
Botanical: Bauhinia monandra
Bauhinia variegate is the lavender variety, also called Mountain Ebony.
Bauhinia binata is the white flowering version.
In springtime at Lake Chapala there are at least two different local trees that are called arboles de orquidias (orchid trees) by our Mexican neighbors. Both are covered with pastel orchid-shaped flowers, but they are totally different trees.
The flowers of the ox hoof tree are usually pink, splotched with deeper rose-mauve. Here at Lakeside, we've also seen trees with lavender or white orchid-like blossoms. All of the colors are splotched with a darker color and the leaves are an elongated heart shape, rather like the shape of the hoof of the ox, and that explains the common Spanish name.
Watch for Spring Flowers – Part 4 next week when we are back with a trip to the nursery to see the spring plants!
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