Bauhinia: Hong Kong Orchid Tree

The Bauhinia is a hybrid, like Hong Kong itself, an unlikely mix of many things. Legend has it that a Catholic monk saw a little tree in the countryside that he had never seen before. He fell in love with it and took a cutting to cultivate when he got home. It was a success, and adopted by the Botanical Gardens for extensive propagation after it survived a huge typhoon in 1904. The flower is a sterile hybrid called Bauhinia blakeana, not native to HK. Both parent plants are capable of autogamy and xenogamy, which means that they can self-fertilize and be fertilized by pollen from a flower on a genetically different plant. What this means is that it can only be reproduced through grafting and cuttings. This means that each Bauhinia blakeana offspring in Hong Kong comes from a part of its parent, sharing the same genetic material, as well as that of its great-great-grandparent, clones of that first cutting the monk brought home! These beautiful scarlet blooms now paint the city a flaming red even during the coldest season in that semi-tropical environment. I have planted Texas orchid trees, or as I like to think of them, Texas camel’s foot -- camels’ feet? – all over my front yard (pictures here and also here). Best of all, the deer don’t bother them at all, whereas they tend to chomp up most other blooms! These, too, are survivors, like their relatives in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Orchid Tree Flower