{"id":500148,"date":"2026-10-18T13:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T13:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500148\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T13:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T13:26:12","slug":"move-over-jacaranda-las-fall-showstopper-is-the-chinese-flame-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500148\/","title":{"rendered":"Move over, jacaranda. LA\u2019s fall showstopper is the Chinese flame tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacaranda<\/a>. Jacaranda<\/a>. Jacaranda<\/a>. We love those purple canopies across Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

But have you seen the Chinese flame tree \u2014 sporting happy yellow blooms that brighten everything around them in the fall, before giving way to pink or reddish capsules that are reminiscent of paper lanterns?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe genus for that group of plants is Koelreuteria,\u201d said Donald Hodel, a landscape horticulture adviser with UC Cooperative Extension, part of the University of California\u2019s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.<\/p>\n

Two species of the tree flower this time of the year. Hodel said that despite their varied origins, they\u2019re almost visually indistinguishable. Koelreuteria bipinnata is from China, and Koelreuteria elegans is from Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The golden yellow phase of the Chinese flame tree.<\/p>\n

Pinkish, reddish capsules of seeds emerge after the yellow flowers.<\/p>\n

The genus, according to the UC Cooperative Extension<\/a>, was introduced to the United States in 1763 \u2014 most likely by an arboretum or botanical garden, Hodel said. From there, they entered the nursery trade.<\/p>\n

They are popular trees in greater Los Angeles \u2014 and can be found in El Sereno, Long Beach and Culver City \u2014 with a couple of knocks against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey aren’t water hogs by any means; [but] they can’t really be considered drought-tolerant,\u201d Hodel explained.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Close-up of a capsule from the Chinese flower tree.<\/p>\n

And they sprout easily if their seeds find a water source. \u201cWhich means you have to take them out, ’cause eventually they’ll get too big,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

No tree is perfect \u2014 he stressed \u2014 not even SoCal\u2019s beloved jacaranda.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could only have one or the other, I’d probably pick a Koelreuteria,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s a good-looking tree.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacaranda. Jacaranda. Jacaranda. We love those purple canopies across Los Angeles. But have you seen the Chinese flame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[193916,193917,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-500148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-chinese-flame-tree","tag-jacaranda-trees","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}