Jacarandas are an arboreal mirror that reflects the ugly state of our digital gratification-obsessed society. They’re a short lived sugar hit of twigs and flowers that Instagram users inject directly into the social media main vein to live, laugh, love before the itch comes back and they move on to their next picture-perfect project.

The horde of social media darlings that descend on Perth’s jacaranda suburbs must irritate residents. A nice Sunday of naked gardening is off the cards with all those drones buzzing overhead. People constantly standing in the middle of the road staging dreamy photos and formulating their next #inspirational post would also take its toll.

The trees themselves are all show and no go. The purple blooms that whip everyone into a frenzy last all of 30 seconds before the flowers fall off and sully the ground below with what can only be described as ‘moist spots’. In a country built on hard work we openly celebrate a tree that spends most of the year doing nothing.

The jacaranda doesn’t care about you or your long term health.

This leads me to my next point. What’s the one thing Australians need more of? Shade. Once those flowers drop off the jacaranda is just a mess of thin twigs throughout the hottest part of summer.