Jakaranda (Jacaranda) Is a genus of plants of the Bignonium family. There are about fifty species in the genus. In most cases, these are large to medium-sized evergreen trees, growing mainly in the tropical and subtropical zone. Most of them are native to South America, in particular Brazil.
An adult Jacaranda tree. Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Allan Henderson
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Botanical description of jacaranda
Jacaranda leaves are opposite, pinnately dissected, fern-like.
Jacaranda inflorescence is panicle, apical or axillary. The flowers are tubular, always bisexual, five-membered and zygomorphic, blue or purple, there are also species with white and purple flowers.
Jacaranda home care
Jacaranda needs good lighting, tolerates some direct sunlight. A number of authors recommend direct sun for jacaranda for 2-3 hours a day. Suitable for growing near western and eastern windows. At the southern windows, from spring to autumn, the plant should be shaded from the midday sun.
A newly purchased plant or plant after prolonged cloudy weather should be accustomed to direct sunlight gradually, in order to avoid sunburn. One-sided illumination of jacaranda causes crown deformation.
The optimum temperature for keeping jacaranda from spring to autumn is 22-24 ยฐ C. From October to spring, it is permissible to slightly lower the temperature to 17-19 ยฐ C, not lower than 15 ยฐ C.
Water the jacaranda all year round regularly, with soft, settled water, as the upper layer of the substrate dries. A plant in winter or spring changes foliage – discards the old and dissolves the new one. During this period, watering of the jacaranda should be limited, but the earthen coma should not be allowed to dry out.
Jacaranda grows in tropical rainforests, so it prefers high humidity. It is recommended to sprinkle the plant daily with lukewarm soft settled water; you can also place a container with a plant on a pallet filled with wet expanded clay or peat.
In the spring-summer period, jacaranda is fed once every three to four weeks with a complex mineral fertilizer. In autumn and winter, the plant is not fed. Also, you should not carry out top dressing during the period of dropping foliage.
In winter or early spring, Jacaranda sheds its leaves even in a bright location. Leaves reappear in spring. Adult specimens begin to lose leaves from below, while becoming less and less spectacular. During this dormant period, it is kept in a bright place at a temperature of 17-19 ยฐ C.
To form a compact crown, you should regularly pinch the ends of the shoots from the plant in the spring. Since the jacaranda has a relatively strong growth, it should be borne in mind that the trunk can be bare.
Possible difficulties in growing jacaranda
In winter or spring, foliage flies around the jacaranda – this is a natural process of replacing foliage.
Damaged by: spider mites, scale insects, whiteflies, aphids.
Jacaranda transplant
The jacaranda is transplanted in the spring, as needed, when the roots fill the entire space of the pot. The following mixture is suitable as a substrate: light sod earth (2 parts), humus earth (1 part), peat (1 part), sand (1 part).
A substrate consisting of 1 part of sod, 2 parts of leafy soil, 1 part of peat, 1 part of humus soil, 0,5 part of sand is also suitable. Provide a good drainage layer at the bottom of the pot.
Reproduction of jacaranda
Plants propagate by seeds and cuttings.
Growing jacaranda from seeds
Seed propagation is carried out in the spring. Before sowing seeds, they are soaked – put in a warm place wrapped in a damp cloth – for a day. They are planted to a depth of about 1 cm, watered.
Jacaranda seeds germinate in warm (22-25 ยฐ C) conditions of a mini-plate for 14-20 days.
When jacaranda shoots appear, the amount of light is increased, the seedlings are transferred to a place with bright diffused light. Seedlings are planted in 1 copy. in 7 cm pots. The substrate is made up of humus soil – 1 hour, peat – 1 hour, light turf – 2 hours and sand – 1 hour. Subsequently, the plants are transferred into 9- and 11-centimeter pots.
From late spring to mid-summer, jacaranda can be propagated by cuttings.
Flowering Jacaranda trees at the University of Queensland, Australia. Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Chris McGaw
Using jacaranda
Jacaranda is a source of quite valuable wood – rosewood, rosewood (fr. palissandre), wood of some South American jacaranda species, in garnish Jacaranda filicifolia… The core of the wood is from dark red to chocolate brown with a violet tint, the sapwood is light yellow.
Rosewood is heavy, durable, well polished, used in the manufacture of expensive furniture, musical instruments, colored parquet, and turning products.
Sometimes the rosewood tree is called the wood of the dalbergia (moth family) and some other trees. To imitate a rosewood tree, birch, maple, and alder wood is used.
October-November in Australia is the end of the school year, the time for exams. So the flowering of jacaranda is closely related to student culture. In youth slang, jacaranda is called an examination tree. There is, for example, a sign – if a whisk of jacaranda falls on your head, then you will pass all the exams successfully. Who knows, maybe this is partly why jacaranda is grown in large quantities. This plant promises good luck.
However, this is for someone like. There are different opinions on this matter. Some students refer to the jacaranda as “the lilac panic.” It is believed that until the jacaranda blooms, it is too early to start preparing for the exams, and when it blooms, it is too late.
At the same time, it is obvious that the existence of jacaranda is associated not only with student life in Australia. Australians have a very deep relationship with this plant. For example, it is customary to plant jacaranda after the birth of a child. And in Brisbane, in the 30s and 40s, seedlings were even officially given out in maternity hospitals.
And in the city of Grafton, the Jacaranda Festival is held every October, with a street procession and a number of other events.
Jacaranda in a pot. Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com atrilobite
Many species are grown as ornamental plants, especially Jacaranda mimosifolia.
Some types of jacaranda are grown as houseplants. In indoor conditions, only young plants are cultivated.
