For the pink and purple
Pleroma urvilleanum, synonym Tibouchina urvilleana, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melastomataceae, native to Brazil.
The tibouchinas are in flower. They are magnificent trees, a blaze of colour, purple and pink. They are not indigenous, which always causes some ire among the perfectionists, but they are simply beautiful.
Here at the Margate Retirement Village, both are in flower right now, but perhaps some are beginning to go off. The tibouchina was originally from Brazil; it’s a tropical shrub or tree and obviously does very well on the South Coast of KZN.
The tree oracles have no hint of how the tibouchina arrived here, but like so many of our ‘local’ glories, like cosmos, they came in with horse fodder from South America for British cavalry regiments during the South African war 125 years ago.
The Village is ablaze with them, pink and purple, brightening up our lives. Our pet tibouchina now overhangs our front veranda, not only shading our cottage but leaving its falling flowers on every available surface. We love it.
Trees are so important in our lives. Reflect back to earlier times in our development, when natural forests covered too much of the earth. Trees provided the wood for housing (apart from caves); they were there to make everyday tools and weapons.
Once fire had been captured and made, perhaps a million years ago, it was trees again, providing light, heat, fuel for cooking, and, quite simply, comfort. Let’s hear it for trees and the pink and purple.
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