Bauhinia trees — commonly called orchid trees for their flowers or butterfly trees for their leaves — belong to a genus of more than 300 species of flowering plants including trees, vines and shrubs that are frequently planted for their showy flowers and ornamental foliage.
A member of the Fabaceae or legume family, the Bauhinia is native to areas including China, India, the Philippines and Australia. The generic name Bauhinia was given by Linnaeus in honor of the Bauhin brothers, Johann and Gaspard, who were 16th- and 17th-century Swiss scientists. Johann was a botanist and Gaspard was both a botanist and physician.
Today, the orchid tree is one of the most popular flowering trees for warm-weather climates. It blends well into almost any landscape and can provide welcome shade during the summer.
The orchid tree grows at a fast rate up to 20 to 40 feet in height, has light gray fairly smooth bark and develops an attractive umbrella-shaped canopy filled with twin-lobed, butterfly-shaped, gray-green leaves. Although it likes regular watering, it should not be overwatered.
Each year, the orchid tree blossoms with showy masses of large, sweetly scented, 5-inch-wide purple, pink, magenta, white or lavender blooms, each delicately resembling an orchid. Flowers are followed by slender brown flat seedpods that ripen after the flowering season has passed.
The tree starts flowering when it is about two or three years old.
Some of the most popular varieties include the Bauhinia purpurea and the Bauhinia blakeana or Hong Kong orchid tree.
The Hong Kong orchid tree is the city flower of Hong Kong and was named for Sir Henry Blake who was the British governor of Hong Kong from 1898 to 1903. One of its parents probably was the Bauhinia purpurea from India.
Beauty and shade are not all this tree offers. Many parts of the orchid tree have medicinal uses, oils are extracted from the seeds, leaves and bark are used for tanning and dyeing, the timber is excellent and the young seedpods, leaves and buds are a treat as vegetables.
For information, call 909-798-9384.
Source: Joyce Dean, a member of the Garden and Floral Arrangers Guild
