A tree that turns purple
Each spring a jacaranda covers itself in purple flowers, usually while its branches are nearly bare. The bloom follows a yearly cycle of rest, a warmth trigger, flowering, pollination and seed.
Winter rest
Through the cool, dry late winter the tree slows down and sheds many of its old leaves. Meanwhile it uses stored sugars to build flower buds at the branch tips.
The trigger
As days lengthen and temperatures rise in spring, the buds break. A long, cool, dry winter usually gives the most spectacular bloom.
Panicles burst open
Flowers appear in dense branching clusters called panicles at the ends of the branches. With few leaves in the way, the whole crown looks purple.
Inside a cluster
Each panicle holds dozens of 5 cm bell-shaped flowers that open from the bottom up, so one tree stays in bloom for several weeks.
Pollination and seeds
Bees push into the flower tubes for nectar and move pollen between blossoms. Fertilised flowers ripen into flat, round woody seed pods.
Carpet and new leaves
Spent flowers drop and carpet the ground purple, while feathery new leaves grow in to feed the tree through summer and store energy for next year's bloom.