jacaranda

/jak'euh ran"deuh, -ran dah"/, n.

1. any of various tropical trees belonging to the genus Jacaranda, of the catalpa family, having showy clusters of usually purplish flowers.

2. any of various related or similar trees.

3. the often fragrant, ornamental wood of any of these trees.

[1745-55; < Pg jacarandá < Tupi yacarandá]

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Any plant of the genus Jacaranda (family Bignoniaceae), especially the two ornamental trees J. mimosifolia and J. cuspidifolia.

Jacarandas are grown widely in warm parts of the world and in greenhouses for their showy blue or violet flowers and attractive, oppositely paired, compound leaves. The genus includes about 50 species native to Central and South America and the West Indies. The name is also applied to several tree species of the genera Machaerium and Dalbergia in the pea family (see legume), the sources of commercial rosewood.

Jacaranda acutifolia

Walter Dawn

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▪ tree genus

      any plant of the genus Jacaranda (family Bignoniaceae), especially the two ornamental trees J. mimosifolia and J. cuspidifolia. They are widely grown in warm parts of the world and in greenhouses for their showy blue or violet flowers and attractive, oppositely paired, compound leaves. The genus includes about 50 species native to Central and South America and to the West Indies.

      The name jacaranda is also applied to several tree species of the genus Machaerium of the pea family (Fabaceae), from which some of the commercial rosewoods (rosewood) are obtained. Jacaranda cabinet wood is a rosewood from the tree species Dalbergia nigra, also of the pea family.

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