The mystery of the name of the trees with purple flowers

My logs of my visit to Sydney in Nov 2010 has come to a close. It was a journey filled with numerous learning points and a lot of blessings to be grateful for. I am thankful for a safe trip to Sydney. It was admittedly one of my main concerns when I visited Sydney for my physical health has not been in its optimal level at that time of my travel to Sydney.

Here I thank my friends in Sydney who have so graciously been wonderful hosts. Many thanks to the strangers I have met during my journey. They have shown me what it meant to be kind without expecting anything in return, and yet the joy of making a difference in most humble ways.

Now, I felt I still have a few outstanding things left unpublished. Do you remember one of my earlier posts on the trees with purple flowers?

In yet another post, I wrote that I had asked one of the crew members onboard one of the Captain Cook Cruises for the name of this very species of tree and was pleasantly delighted to learn the name of the tree. However, Alas! No thanks to a slip in recollection, I could only remember that the name of the tree starts with "J" and has four syllables.

Did anyone of you manage to do the research to find the name of this species of tree?

I did my research when I was back in Singapore from the Sydney trip. I used Yahoo! Image Search and keyed in the key words "trees with purple flowers Sydney". Then I looked at the images from the results generated against the photographs that I had taken of the trees with purple flowers so as to determine the possible name of the tree.








According to wikipedia, this species of tree "is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of South America (especially Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay), Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. It is found throughout the Americas and Caribbean, and has been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, India, Fiji and parts of Africa".

That could explain why a number of locals in Sydney did not know the name of the tree. I am starting to wonder if the crew member who had given me the name of this species with such great confidence was from South America.

And the name of this tree is the Jacaranda.

Wonderful research skills and/or brilliant knowledge in trees for those of you who have gotten its name right!