Tree of the Week: Where to find jacarandas

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Good morning. It’s a gloomy one on the Westside, but it’s early yet. ‘Tree of the Week’ this week is jacaranda, in a landslide. Jacaranda was our tree of the week a year ago -- I called it a ‘showy, troublesome, classic’ (troublesome because of the mess made by the falling flowers and potential root problems).

This year, Pauline O’Connor of LATimes.com’s The Guide has a great short list of the best places to see jacarandas in L.A. right now. Pauline’s top three (of five):

1. UCLA, Westwood/West L.A.
Locate some lavender in the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden on UCLA’s north campus.

2. Traxx restaurant, downtown L.A.
The towering old trees in the back patio of this Union Station restaurant are aglow with romantic lanterns.

3. Victoria Avenue, Crenshaw District
This wide street just west of Crenshaw Boulevard is jammed with jacarandas for five straight blocks. Start at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and head north as far as Rodeo Road.

Thanks, Pauline, excellent stuff. Pieter Severynen’s original, old-school ‘Tree of the Week’ will return next Saturday.