Yesterday, we had temperatures in DC reaching 59° yesterday, which was downright heavenly. I took some time away from work to go for a run along the mall, eying all the trees' buds, which are slowly fattening up to burst this spring. Today, we're back to colder temperatures, so I've decided to commit this week to more tropicals and live in denial.
This was a specimen I shot in March 2009 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I don't know how I failed to post about it at NYPAOS, but I didn't so I'm happily introducing it now: Bauhinia purpurea, AKA Hong Kong orchid tree, Hawaiian orchid tree or purple camel's foot.
That last common name should be evident when considering the assymmetrical bilobed leaves which look similar enough to the footprints of a camel.
The flower, as the other common names suggest, is orchid-like, with long slender petals and showy, spurred stamens. Of course, the other huge clue to identify this plant appears in the photos above and below and that's the long, flattened fruits which clue us in that we're looking at a member of the Leguminosae family.
Bauhinia is a popular ornamental tree int he tropics and it native to Southeast Asia. In the states, it's prevalent in Texas, Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. There's some debate about its invasive quality --the plant sets very successful seedlings which can be a management problem.
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