Tourist from across the world flock to Japan for the country’s annual sakura season, when cherry trees lining city streets and rivers become filled with brilliant pink flower blossoms. You won’t find cherry blossoms in Indonesia, but the East Java capital of Surabaya has something pretty, pretty close.
Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini is beloved in large part because of her efforts to beautify her city — even before she became the city’s chief executive she was the head of Surabaya’s parks department, which is where she had the idea of planting the trees that are currently going viral online in Indonesia.
“The idea [for these trees] was from Ibu Risma, when she was still the Head of the Sanitation and Green Open Space (DKRTH) Office of the City of Surabaya, not yet the mayor,” Surabaya City Government spokesman Muhammad Fikser told Tribun yesterday.
It was in 2010 when Ibu Risma implemented the program to line the city’s main streets with golden trumpet trees (Handroanthus chrysotrichus), a tropical species originally from Brazil that is known for its heartiness and for its bright yellow or pink blossoms.
Usually the trees bloom twice a year, in April and towards the end of the year . But Fikser said this latest blossoming was unique in that the flowers usually only develop during the dry season, not after the rainy season has started as it already has this year.
The unusual flora phenomenon has been well documented on Instagram in viral pics that’ll have you mistaking the East Java capital for Japan. Here are a few more of our favorites:
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