The Hong Kong Orchid Tree (Bauhinia) Is an Accidental Hybrid

Since the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, the regional flag of the Hong Kong S.A.R. has represented a stylized orchid—Bauhinia × blakeana—on a red background. Yet, this tree has a peculiar history as it is the result of a natural accident closely tied to the city of Hong Kong itself.

Around 1880, a French Catholic priest discovered an unknown tree growing near the Sanatorium de Béthanie in Pok Fu Lam, on the southwestern edge of Hong Kong Island. Nearly two decades later, in 1908, Stephen Troyte Dunn, the Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department of Hong Kong, realized that this tree was unique in the world.

Indeed, Bauhinia × blakeana—named after Sir Henry Blake, the Governor of Hong Kong between 1898 and 1903—is not a naturally occurring tree species. Rather, it was the result of the accidental cross-pollination of two existing bauhinia species (Bauhinia purpurea and Bauhinia variegata). Interestingly, however, this hybridization was not the result of human manipulation but happened naturally. Yet, since its discovery, the tree has needed human intervention to survive, as it is naturally sterile.

Today, it is said that all Bauhinia × blakeana trees in the world are clones of the original tree discovered by the French priest nearly 150 years ago.