Jacaranda in Kathmandu: A beautiful flower’s ‘invasive’ love affair with Nepal’s capital

As the spring season reaches its peak in Kathmandu, major roads in the city turn purple. Beautiful flowers from big plants blanket tarred roads and busy sidewalks—just to get crushed by speeding tyres and hastening feet after a while. But, if you catch the scene before the blooms are trodden by the vehicles and people, you will feel blissful for a moment.

Perhaps there are a few hundred people in Kathmandu who have not seen jacaranda flowers. Maybe, the number of people who recognise it as jacaranda is even lower. Apparently, numerous posts on social media around this time every year suggest that thousands of Kathmanduites mistake this foreign plant for their native ‘shirish’ (mimosa).