“Spring is Sprung” - look to the trees!

When I looked up the origin of the phrase "spring is sprung," I found it is associated with New York, a poem, and newspapers. In the final analysis, its author seems to be unknown. Whatever the source, spring is officially here! (Astronomical spring dates)

Golden Tree / Aiea Heights Road / March 2016

Continuing with the theme of dedications for my blog, I am dedicating this blog to my dear, dear friend who introduced me to the idyllic home, and street, in and upon which we live. She was the heart of the street and an incomparable woman! 

Whenever I see the Golden Trees bloom, I think of my friend. When this friend retired from teaching, she revived the local chapter of Outdoor Circle and chose the Golden Tree to represent our Aiea chapter. While she led the Wai Momi Chapter, she carried out many memorable, and useful, activities and meetings. We were all enlightened, and honored, to be a part of her dream and regret not being able to keep it going without her. Everyone who knew her misses her greatly!

Golden Tree / Aiea Heights Road / March 2016

The Golden Tree is such an eye-catching tree with its vibrant yellow blooms that burst forth at this time of year and seem to glow against the blue, blue sky.  I also associate these trees with Easter and their blooms this year are perfectly timed for such!

Golden Tree / Aiea Heights Road / March 2016

I am very lucky to have some magnificent examples in our neighborhood. As a note, some people mistakenly identify these trees as Golden Shower trees.

The two other spring blooming trees I am highlighting are also deciduous trees. I think deciduous trees are such an unusual sight in Hawaii. Some people may not realize that we have deciduous trees here and / or which ones they are.

Plumeria just barely starting to bloom / Waimea Falls Park / February 2016 

The first deciduous tree is the prevalent Plumeria. I have mentioned the deciduous nature of this tree before when I discussed Fall in Hawaii. [October 1, 2015 - FALL] And now that it is Spring, the Plumeria trees are flowering! 

Plumeria in full bloom / Moanalua Road / March 2016 

Strangely, Plumeria trees flower along bare branches like the stoned fruit trees e.g. cherry and plum! I wonder why flowering on bare branches even occurs. It is especially puzzling for the Plumeria tree as it does not produce any fruit. Perhaps evolutionarily it did at one time.

Chinaberry tree, bare / Aiea / January 2016

The second deciduous tree is the Chinaberry. After a great deal of searching, I finally identified this tree! Identification source from another blogger 

Chinaberry tree, flowers / Aiea / March 2016 

Chinaberry tree, in flower / Aiea / March 2016 

As usual, I learned something new! I always thought the purple flowering trees around my house were Jacaranda trees. (This was based on my San Diego childhood memories of my mother and grandmother's admiration of the purple flowered Jacaranda tree.) I did begin to wonder whether the trees were in fact Jacaranda when I saw the star-shaped flower on the ground and then again in my up-close photo! So after much searching I found out that the Jacaranda flower is in fact trumpet-shaped! 

I used one of my trusted sources to confirm the identification of this tree as the Chinaberry tree. 

In the photos on-line, I also saw confirmation of this identification through other characteristics of the tree that I had noticed over the years. The primary one being the berry which forms. In the past, I observed that this tree and its fruit is one of the things which bring the Rose-ringed Parakeet 

[October 15, 2015 - Aliens!] to the valley near our home. 

Since it is not the time for berries on this tree, or fruit on the Strawberry Guava, perhaps that is why the parakeet flock is not around here now! As so often happens in observing nature, these seemingly unrelated nature facts come together! 

I will have to keep watching to see if the parakeet flock returns when the fruit begins to form.

As an aside of botanical interest, in my winter bloom blog [March 10, 2016 - Winter flower beauty in Hawai’i], I happened to highlight a number of flowers which are trumpet-shaped as is this week’s blog’s Golden Tree. They are all in the Bignoniaceae family. Source for the grouping of these plants This leads me to a question: Is there any significance to winter and early spring bloomers being in the same botanical family?

See if you can spot some of these unique and beautiful spring flowering trees that bloom in colors from white to pink to pale violet to glowing yellow! And as always keep “watching out for nature!”