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BEK-TO CHIU
BAUHINIA VARIEGATA, LINN * # Family: Caesalpiniaceae #4# 鳳科
Common names: Camel's Foot Tree
Orchid Tree
Mountain Ebony
This Bauhinia was introduced from India and is cultivated in the different parts of the Colony for its profusion of blooms in early spring from mid-January to the end of April with its "peak" often coinciding with Ching Ming Festival. The inflorescences of dense racemes, each shorter but more numerous than those of Bauhinia blakeana, arise from the axils of the leaves. The leaves are usually shed just before blooming time. Thus the bluish-grey bare branches become heavily laden with tufts of blooms, which, at a distance, appear like cherry or apple blossoms, with a magnificent display of colours, ranging from purple-red, rose-pink to white. It is most decorative and colourful to the roadsides and the hillsides on which they grow and a welcome indication that spring is here.
The flowers are fragrant and resemble those of B. blakeana in structure and general appearance but are smaller in size and softer and daintier in texture, maturing readily into fruits which are flattened legumes (pea pods) about a foot long and 1/2 inch wide, green when young, becoming black on ripening. These legumes are dehiscent, splitting along both sutures explosively, dispersing the seeds to considerable distances. The seeds germinate readily and the young plants bloom in the second year. Many of the hillside trees are most likely self-sown.
When the trees are in full foliage in the summer and autumn, they are difficult to distinguish from those of B. blakeana, except by observing the bilobed leaves which are completely glabrous, appearing thin and of a paler green colour. The leaf blades are traversed by eleven palmate main veins. In winter, the leaves start to deteriorate, in preparation for shedding but before the last blooms are over in spring, the new leaves unfold. This deciduous Bauhinia hardly ever has bare branches throughout the year.
It is said that in India the young leaves and the unopened flower buds are eaten and that nearly every part of the tree is used medicinally. The bark is used in tanning and dyeing.
More cultivation of Bauhinia variegata should be encouraged to add colour and beauty to the already beautiful Hong Kong.