In Brisbane, there are two types of flowering trees that stand out from the rest – they are Poinciana‘s and Jacaranda‘s. During my time as a student at UQ (Saint Lucia campus) and a footballer at New Farm Park, I used to have a great appreciation for Jacaranda trees. I loved the subtle and relaxed feeling of the purple flowers – they give you a sense of zen.

Then I moved to the suburb of Rocklea.

The firey red – sign of passion.

Shot on Canon FL 55mm f/1.2 lens

There is a tree down the street where I live that was flowering late last year. Since I got myself a new (old) Canon FL 55mm f/1.2 lens, I just had to go down and take some photos. That tree, in its flamboyant greatness, screams fire and passion. I took one of the pods I found on the ground and planted 3 seeds, all of which have since sprouted and are now growing. I will be planting one in my front yard to carry on the legend of the Rocklea Reds.

As a side note and worth mentioning here, the exhaust towers for the Clem 7 tunnel were covered in colours representing Jacaranda’s and Poinciana. The tower at The Gabba is covered in purple panels, and the one at Bowen Hills, is covered in red panels. In this article, local residents of the Gabba complained about the “monstrosity” that had been built there. I personally could not have thought of a better way to cover a tunnel exhaust and the idea of the Jacaranda and Poinciana colours is quite cool – IMHO.

Poinciana boken.