Giant Coreopsis

In Malibu’s Point Dume, there is a field of giant coreopsis. It’s a popular tourist destination and photography spot. So popular that I even noticed the location on the landing page for my bank’s website? During the 2019 superbloom, my friend and I got up at 5am and drove in the dark for an hour to catch the pre-dawn golden hour in the golden coreopsis field. She is a photographer, and snapped this picture of me, which we referred to as my “Christian rock album cover.”

Wisteria

They grow wild on fences by highway overpasses, cultivated in arbors in front of homes. They have a sweet scent similar to lilacs. The flower petals are edible and can be made into cordials and teas but every other part of the plant is highly toxic, so I’m too afraid to try. In the fall, their seed pods—- picture a brown, twisting string bean with a velvety surface—- crack open. At a 2017 poetry reading, Wendy C. Ortiz handed out these pods to audience members. Mine are in a glass on my writing desk.

Jacaranda

Pronounced hock-a-RONN-da. These trees, native to Central and South America, can be seen blooming all over Los Angeles in April and May. There are a few famous streets in the city that are lined with these trees, and in the spring, they make a vibrant purple canopy. I used to plan my drive home from work to get maximum jacaranda viewing, sort of like configuring your route through high school hallways so you’d run into your crush. The jacarandas bloomed in the weeks following Prince’s death in 2016, which felt like a cosmic arboreal tribute to The Purple One. When the blossoms fall to the ground, they turn slimy and sticky as they decompose, leaving an intractable goopy mess that stains any car unlucky enough to be parked under one of the trees, like mine. Sometimes I sing a little song to myself, to the tune of The Beach Boys’ “Help me Rhonda”:

Jacaranda/
Jac-Jacaranda/
Jacaranda/
Jac-Jacaranda/
Jac-a-ran-da yeah -
get ‘em off of my car

Pink Trumpet Trees

Virgil Avenue is to Pink Trumpet Trees what Palm Drive is to Jacarandas. In mid-spring, these trees explode in Pepto-Bismol pink. Easily mistaken for magnolias or dogwoods, they are distinguished by the delicate yellow hearts in their cup-shaped blossoms.

Gold Medallion Trees

These bloom in late spring. I don’t have much to say about them other than the fact that they’re very lovely.

Pomegranate trees

Around April or May (or earlier, in hot years like this one), the pomegranate trees in my yard bloom with deep red flowers. There is one tree visible from one bedroom window, and another tree visible from another. And their seasonal cycles have made appearances in many of my poems.