Bauhinia

Profusely flowering now is our Purple Bauhinia tree (Bauhinia purpurea), on its second year of flowering now since we planted it just a little more than three years ago. Needless to say, it is a fast grower and an excellent shade tree.

It belongs to the same family as the indigenous Alibangbáng; Lorie who joined us some months back (when it was not flowering) insisted this is the tree whose leaves they used to sour their dishes. But it is not this, and I doubt if any part of this Bauhinia is edible at all.

What it does though, is it sheds its beautiful orchid-like flowers and evenly litters the ground with a thin carpet of purple petals. Unfortunately, I cannot capture it well enough and I certainly can attest that it looks much better than the image on the left.

This is also the same flower that is the symbol of Hong Kong, and appears on their flag and many other national emblems.