October is widely known as Jacaranda month in Pretoria due to the flowering of the many thousands of Jacaranda mimosifolia that come into flower each year.  This year, the city of Tshwane hosted a public on-line symposium including three presentations, one of which was by FABI Professor Mike Wingfield. In his talk, Mike shared news of the root rot disease of these iconic trees caused by two species belonging to the fungal genus Ganoderma.  He also presented information on various interesting fungi and insects associated with these trees and appealed to Pretoria residents to take care of the trees, not damaging them with gardening equipment or allowing aggressive creepers to smother them.  Other presentations were by Prof. Anton van Vollenhoven of North West University who spoke on “The Cultural Significance of Jacaranda trees for Tshwane” and Dr Catherine Dzerefos of Tshwane University of Technology who presented on “Insights on urban biodiversity focusing on the iconic Jacaranda tree and its role in improving communities.”