It is spring in South Africa, located in the southern hemisphere, and it always arrives with a fairy-tale blue and purple coat. The blue carpets in full bloom add color and romance to this dry season.

Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, is known as the "City of Bluebonnets". This plant has traveled from the Americas to the southernmost tip of Africa to grow and flourish, making this a must-see spring scene on the planet.

Bluebonnets are integrated into people's lives and culture in South Africa, with many beautiful symbols and a number of not-so-good connotations hidden behind them.

Native to Central and South America, these plants, with their vigorous, even aggressive nature, have spread rapidly through dozens of streets in Pretoria, creating a magnificent cityscape of great astonishment. in 1939, the two mother trees were fenced off and a memorial plaque placed, unveiled by the then mayor of Pretoria himself.

According to South Africa's Arcadia magazine in December 2021, there is some 37,000 jacaranda in Pretoria's central streets, and as many as 65,000 in and around the city combined.

The rainy season comes just before South Africa's hottest and most biologically unfriendly season of the year. People's lips are chapped, their throats are tight, and plants are dying if they are not watered for a day. In such a season, driving through a quiet tunnel of blue and purple is a rare nourishing healing experience.

The blue carpets are famous for their ethereal blue-purple flowers, and their name comes from the Portuguese word meaning "sweet and fragrant". The distinctive bell-shaped flowers grow in clusters, with dozens of small bells hanging from one branch. Their foliage is fern-like, opposite, and dark green in color. When the flowers are at their peak, the leaves are almost invisible, and the trees are full of flowers as if you are in the grand archway of a wedding. When a breeze is blowing, the fallen flowers become a purple carpet, sharing the colors of spring in the sky and underground.

The quiet and romantic atmosphere of blue carpets inevitably reminds people of cherry blossoms. The difference is that the blue carpets are taller, up to 10 meters taller, with more flowers and a much longer flowering period, from the end of September to the beginning of November (spring to early summer in the southern hemisphere), a full 8 weeks for people to enjoy.

According to the South African Tourism Department, up to 80% of the guests in Pretoria hotels in October are tourists, many of whom travel halfway around the world for a date with the blue carpets.

Jacaranda means "wisdom and knowledge". Therefore, when they were brought to South Africa, they were mostly planted in and around university campuses.

It is also known as the "blue-purple panic" because it is the examination season in South Africa when bluebonnets are in full bloom.

The South Africans have a saying: "If the bluebonnet is in full bloom and you haven't started your revision, then sorry, you won't pass".