Seven years ago we had written in this blog: “Dozens of jacaranda trees have been blossoming in Reynier Village for the past few weeks, their violet purple flowers brightening the neighborhood and blanketing our streets…” Click here to read.
And it’s happening again in 2020, as it does every year in late Spring. In this time of crisis, when a worldwide pandemic is bringing so much death and misery to people, when the rightful protests over the police killing of George Floyd are used as an excuse for looting, this is a reminder that the Earth continues to flourish, despite humankind’s efforts to destroy it.
You may read in this Los Angeles Magazine article how jacarandas were introduced to Southern California by pioneer horticulturist Kate Sessions. Born in San Francisco, she moved to San Diego, after earning a degree in natural science from U.C. Berkeley in 1881, started cultivating imported and local plants, became a landscape designer and founded Balboa Park. The beautiful Jacaranda trees, originally from the Amazon in Brazil, were planted extensively in L.A. in 1920s and 1930, when Reynier Village was built. Read more details in this LAist article.
This flower is so symbolic of Los Angeles that local writer Eve Babitz named Jacaranda the protagonist of her book, Sex and Rage (1979). Babitz has been experiencing a reflowering of her own lately. Last year Lili Anolik published her biography, Hollywood’s Eve, and Eve published a new book, I Used to Be Charming, with essays she wrote for magazines between 1975 and 1997, and her 1980 book about Fiorucci.
For more info please read my article in Cultural Weekly, Eve Babitz and Me.
Text and photos by Elisa Leonelli