The Bauhinia, with its purple-red blossoms resembling butterflies, presents an exceptional and vibrant spectacle. Its flowers bloom even before the leaves emerge, earning it the nickname “Full Red Branch.”
Today, the Bauhinia is the official flower of Hong Kong, which has returned to its motherland after a century.
Hong Kong is located on the southeastern coast of China, to the east of the Pearl River estuary and adjacent to the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province. There’s a tragic story about the Bauhinia in the history of Hong Kong.
On June 19, 1898, the humiliating “Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory” was signed in the “City of Bauhinia,” where the British government forcefully leased a large part of the Kowloon Peninsula and over 200 nearby islands (later known as the New Territories) for 99 years.
Despite the strong opposition and resistance of the Chinese people, the British held an occupation ceremony two months ahead of schedule under cannon fire. Thousands of patriots rose to defend their homes, launching counterattacks on the British camp.
Although the British forces suffered heavy losses, the people were brutally suppressed, and 100,000 inhabitants of the New Territories lost their land.
After the catastrophe, the villagers built a large tomb on Kau Kak Shan to jointly bury those who sacrificed heroically.
A tree, bearing purple-red flowers that had never been seen before, later grew on the mountain. After a few years, the flowers covered the slopes of the New Territories, especially around the Qingming Festival when the flowers were in full bloom, a vivid remembrance of the heroes.
The people named it the Bauhinia.
In 1965, the Bauhinia was chosen as the city flower of Hong Kong.
In ancient China, the Bauhinia was often used as a metaphor for kinship, symbolizing fraternal harmony and family prosperity.
This stems from a story during the Southern Dynasty. When Tian Zhen, the governor of Jingzhao, and his brothers Tian Qing and Tian Guang divided their family property, they realized a thriving Bauhinia tree in the courtyard remained to be dealt with.
They agreed to divide the tree into three parts, one for each. However, when they went to cut the tree the next morning, they found the tree had withered, and all the flowers had fallen.
Seeing this, Tian Zhen exclaimed to his brothers, “People are not as good as trees.” The brothers later reunited their family and lived in harmony. Mirroring their reconciliation, the Bauhinia tree revived and flourished.
The Bauhinia belongs to the bean family, and its leaves are singular and grow alternately, with a complete margin and a palmate venation. Each leaf possesses a petiole and small, early-falling stipules.
The flowers cluster or form racemes on old stems, blooming before or concurrently with the leaves. The calyx is broad bell-shaped, with five clefts, each one with a blunt or rounded tip.
The flower exhibits bilateral symmetry, with the upper three petals being smaller.
The flower has ten separate stamens and a stalked ovary. The pod is flat, narrowly elongated elliptical, and has a narrow wing along the ventral suture line. It carries several flat seeds. The Bauhinia, a deciduous tree, often takes on a shrub-like form after cultivation.
Its leaves grow alternately and are nearly circular in shape. They have a pointed tip and a heart-shaped base, and measure between 6-14 cm in length and 5-14 cm in width, with no hair on both sides.
The flowers, which bloom before the leaves, cluster in groups of 4-10 on the old branches. Each cluster has two small bracts that are broadly ovate in shape.
The flowers are rose-red in color, measuring 1.5-1.3 cm in length. Their slender flower stalks measure between 0.6-1.5 cm in length.
The pod is flat, lanceolate, and measures 5-14 cm in length and 1.3-1.5 cm in width. It has a narrow wing along the ventral suture line and does not split open. It carries 2-8 flat, nearly black, circular seeds. The flowering season is from April to May.
As many know, the Bauhinia is the official flower of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and its emblem is even printed on the Hong Kong flag. People from the north might be confused, thinking, “This isn’t the Bauhinia I’m familiar with!”
Indeed, the Bauhinia flower of Hong Kong is not the same as the commonly seen Bauhinia in the north.
The commonly seen northern Bauhinia, colloquially known as ‘Man Tiao Hong’, is a tree from the bean family, under the genus Bauhinia.
The official flower of Hong Kong is the Hong Kong Orchid Tree (scientific name: Bauhinia blakeana Dunn). Hong Kong locals call it the “Bauhinia”, while it is referred to as the “Glamorous Bauhinia” in Taiwan.
The Hong Kong Orchid Tree is an evergreen tree from the Caesalpiniaceae family, and it grows between 6-10 meters tall.
The leaves of the Hong Kong Orchid Tree are leathery, circular or broadly heart-shaped, measuring between 10-13 cm in length. They are slightly wider than they are long, and split at the top in a way that resembles a hoof. Each segment is about one-third the length of the whole leaf and has a rounded tip.
The flower of the Hong Kong Orchid Tree grows in a raceme, or sometimes branches into a cone shape. They are red or purplish-red in color, and are palm-sized, measuring between 10-12 cm. There are five petals, with four divided into two opposite pairs, and the fifth perched on top, giving it an orchid-like appearance. The flower is fragrant, with a scent similar to an orchid, hence it is also known as the “Orchid Tree. The blooming period is from November to the following April.
The Bauhinia is native to most parts of China, from Hebei in the north to Guangdong and Guangxi in the south, Yunnan and Sichuan in the west, Shaanxi in the northwest, and Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shandong in the east. It is a common cultivated plant.
The Hong Kong Orchid Tree is a native species in China, with a more narrow distribution, mainly found in Fujian, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Hainan, Guangxi, and Yunnan. I hope this clears up the confusion for our northern readers!