A small to medium deciduous tree about 5 m tall. Alternate leaves 10–20 cm, rounded and two-lobed at both base and apex like a goat's hoof or camel's footprint, hence the Chinese name. Conspicuous pink-purple fragrant flowers with five narrow separate petals like an orchid and three or four fertile stamens; pods 30 cm with 12–16 seeds. Genome sequencing showed it to be the maternal parent of Hong Kong's emblem, Bauhinia × blakeana.
Habitat
Streets, parks, campuses and hillsides, widely planted as a street tree; native to tropical deciduous forest.
Distribution
Native to the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar and widely introduced through the tropics and subtropics; commonly grown at low elevations in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Taiwan, common on Singapore's streets and in its parks, and in Japan only in Okinawa.
Season and behaviour
September to November in southern China (before the Hong Kong orchid tree), mainly the dry season in Singapore, flowering after leaf fall; over a month.
Photography tips
These are the FilmAnalysis editors' notes, not content from the sources.
The narrow separate petals read like an orchid: macro or long lens head-on for the arrangement of five petals and curved stamens, pink-purple truest in soft light. The hoof-shaped leaf is the identification mark, worth a frame. A leafless tree in flower from below against blue sky; fallen flowers with hoof leaves from above.
Photographic styles
Pink-purple orchid-like flowers under blue sky; close-ups of hoof-shaped leaves.
Similar species
Hong Kong orchid tree (the sterile hybrid, larger deeper flowers, Hong Kong's emblem); Bauhinia variegata (pale pink with purple marks, flowering with the leaves in spring); white bauhinia.
Related badge
None yet. No validated photo recognition exists for this species, so no badge is tied to it: a name in the encyclopedia is not evidence in a photograph.
The illustration is original FilmAnalysis artwork. The photograph is from Wikimedia Commons; its licence and author are under it.
Why it is listed: this species comes from the Flower checklist (GBIF backbone and Wikidata verified). Names follow the GBIF backbone and Wikidata; the facts follow the sources below; photo recognition is not offered.
