How big do jacarandas grow?
PlantNET puts jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) at up to 15 m, occasionally 20 m, losing its leaves in early spring. As a street tree, the City of Sydney expects 10 to 15 m. It's native to Argentina and Bolivia and has naturalised in NSW and Queensland.
Brisbane City Council says it's fast growing, resprouts easily if damaged and can form thickets of seedlings beneath planted trees. It has spread from gardens into nearby woodland and grassland, especially on creek banks and near waterways, and was first recorded naturalising in Queensland in 1987. Its roots are a gap for us: we found no reliable source on them.
Why does lopping a jacaranda backfire?
| Pruning | Lopping | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the cut goes | Just outside the branch collar, the swelling at the base of a limb | Between growing points, leaving a stub |
| How the tree copes | It grows over the wound quickly | It struggles to seal the wound, which can leave it open to fungal infection |
| What grows back | The tree keeps its natural shape | Bushy regrowth that's often poorly attached and can make the tree dangerous |
| The standard | Methods set out in AS 4373-2007 | Listed as unacceptable in AS 4373-2007 |
A tree that resprouts as readily as a jacaranda answers a lop with a mass of fast shoots. If yours has been lopped before, an arborist can advise on thinning the regrowth back to a sounder structure; our lopping vs pruning guide explains why it matters.
Pest listed, and protected too?
In Brisbane, both can be true. Brisbane City Council's weed identification tool lists jacaranda as Council Pest Vegetation under the Natural Assets Local Law, and it's regarded as an environmental weed in NSW and Queensland. Yet the same local law (Schedule 2, as consolidated in 2013) lists jacarandas with a trunk 80 cm or more across, and a listed tree is a significant landscape tree in set cases.
Brisbane City Council says permission is needed to clear pest plant trees that are protected. So the pest listing isn't a green light: call the council, or request a protected vegetation enquiry for the property, before anything is cut. Elsewhere, start with our tree removal permits page.
Jobs for you, jobs for an arborist
You can
- Pull jacaranda seedlings by hand while they're small, before they form a thicket.
- Remove small low twigs and dead wood you can reach from the ground, with secateurs.
- Sweep fallen flowers off paths and steps.
Leave to an arborist
- Any reduction or reshaping of the crown.
- Sorting out old lopping regrowth.
- Branches near power lines: never go near them yourself, and see trees and power lines for who to call.
- Removal, which in Brisbane may need council permission first.
Jacarandas: what to do next
Don't let anyone lop it. If a jacaranda has outgrown its spot, we'd get an arborist to quote a proper reduction or a removal, and in Brisbane we'd measure the trunk and call the council before choosing between them.
Want an arborist to look at it?
Tell us the job and your postcode, and a local arborist calls you to talk it through.