Wikimedia Commons
Fabaceae
Hong Kong Orchid Tree
Bauhinia x blakeana
Hong Kong identity, harmony, exotic beauty.
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Genus
- Bauhinia
- Native to
- Hong Kong (cultivated origin)
- Bloom season
- Winter, Spring
- Type
- Tree
- Height
- 6–12 m (20–40 ft)
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Soil
- Average, well-drained
- Water
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- 9–11
- Lifespan
- Long-lived (50+ years)
Did you know
- The Hong Kong orchid tree is the official symbol of Hong Kong—it appears on the Hong Kong flag, coat of arms, and all of its coins since 1997.
- Every Hong Kong orchid tree on Earth is sterile and propagated only from cuttings—the entire global population descends from a single tree discovered around 1880 by a Catholic missionary on Hong Kong island.
- The flowers are huge—up to 6 inches across—and look exactly like cattleya orchids, but they grow on a leguminous tree, not on a true orchid plant.
- The leaves are uniquely cleft into two lobes, looking exactly like a butterfly or a camel's hoof—Linnaeus named the genus 'Bauhinia' after the twin Bauhin brothers, both 16th-century Swiss botanists.
- Despite being seedless and entirely cultivated, the Hong Kong orchid tree has spread to gardens across the warmest parts of every continent—a single 19th-century orphan now blooming in millions of yards worldwide.
Color meanings
0
Hong Kong identity
1
harmony
2
exotic beauty