Barcelona shares a global color in spring. A lavender stain, with a cold and luminous point, splashes the city coinciding with the final stretch of the station. Behind this is the jacaranda flower, a tree of South American origin of which there are 5,631 specimens counted by Parcs y Jardins. The postcards that offer a certain cloudiness that their flowers give in clusters or the delicate carpets that they form when they fall are typical of cities like Mexico, Buenos Aires or Pretoria. And it is also a Barcelona image, at least, for more than a century.
Its scientific name, Jacaranda mimosifoliagives clues to its distant origin: the term Guaraní was used to name it yacarandawhich means hard wood, a quality that is little appreciated in its role as an urban tree but useful for the inhabitants of northern Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia where it originates. But it was its aesthetic possibilities that took it to other latitudes, after anonymous nurserymen or well-known landscapers were captivated by its bluish florescence.
The gender of its common name also speaks volumes about it. According to the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts, the acute form jacaradá is masculine, and is typical of its place of origin. The severe variant, used in Mexico and some countries in the Central American area, is feminine, as is that of the Catalan language.
Barcelona is not the only city where the introduction of the tree has a more or less clear date and responsibility. The urban planner Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier planted some of the first specimens in the Catalan capital as part of his plan to renovate the city for the 1929 Universal Exhibition. In Mexico City, a few years later, the Japanese proposed using it, instead of the cherry tree, within the presidential order to beautify the city, with an eye on Washington. In Pretoria (South Africa), another of the world capitals of the jacaranda, a plaque from the Consistory dating from 1936 remembers how in 1889 a certain Jacob Daniël Celliers planted the first specimens.
“It is a tree that works very well,” explains Pere de Mas, head of Trees at Parcs i Jardins to argue its success. Its virtues go beyond aesthetics, continues the expert in green spaces: to begin with, Barcelona’s climate ensured that it was free from the frosts that would damage it, but it has also proven to be resistant to drought, it does well in compact soils and its reasonable size fits well on medium-sized sidewalks.
He is a model and integrated immigrant who has even included in the list the species on which he has been betting for the change in the mix of species in the city. The City Council’s idea is that none of the 170 identified in the urban plot and parks exceed the 15% quota (the bananas are 20%) to ensure the resistance of the entire ecosystem to possible pests or even the consequences of climate change.
Jacarandas only make up 2% of the total, hence there is still room for growth. In fact, the spot effect of spring has more to do with its distribution throughout all the districts of the city. A third of those registered are between Nou Barris and Sant Andreu, although if we look only at those in the trees lined with the streets, the Eixample takes the cake. In the Catalog of Trees of Local Interest it appears in four entries. Among them is the oldest specimen, which dates back to 1904 and is in a private garden of a home on Alfonso XII street in Gràcia. Also the group made up of the nine specimens in the Sagrada Família square.
You could say that the jacaranda is another example that no one is a prophet in their land. After 32 years of debate, in 1942 the Argentine Government discarded its bell-shaped flower as the national emblem, in favor of the more exotic ceibo, justifying itself in a survey carried out by the newspaper The reason among 20,000 readers. This hand in hand has had a second installment in the Catalan capital. There are ceibo trees in Barcelona, like the immense one that can be seen in Aragó with Enamorats, but still in token numbers. Both of them, yes, very well integrated Argentines.
