The National Flower of Hong Kong is Bauhinia Blakeana or Orchid Bauhinia. It is also known as Hong Kong Orchid Tree. It is the most common flower which is considered as the official flower of Hong Kong State.
Bauhinia Blakeana or Orchid Bauhinia. It is native to Hong Kong since 1880, all species belong to this family cultivated in Hong Kong nurseries and Botanical gardens. The use of this flower got popularity in 1914 in the said country. Beside its name Orchid in Hong Kong it is also known named as “KANCHAN FLOWER” in china. This beautiful flower is featured on provincial/regional Flag. It appears as red-purple covers the whole Umbrella like pinnacle.
[wpdm_package id=’843′]The blooming session starts in November and continue till the end of March. The people of Hong Kong country call the leaf of flower as Clever Leaf. The attractive flower practices as symbol of wisdom. Certain people believe it as a hope, good luck during studies and make bookmarks using the leaves.
Classification of Bauhinia Flower
- Flower Public Name: Hong Kong Orchid Tree
- Color: Red, Purple
- Shape: Umbrella-shaped pinnacle/peak
- Family: Fabaceae
- Species: Bauhinia * Blakeana
- Order: Fabales
- Genus: Bauhinia
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Petals: Four (04) to six (6)
- Native Areas: Finland, Japan, some parts of eastern Asia and Yugoslavia
- Height : 15-30 centimeter
- Blooming season: November to the end of March
- Resemblance: Heart of Butterfly, human faces.
- Symbol and Meaning: use as wisdom symbol, Hope, and Chasity, happiness, modesty and good fortune
- Useful uses: festival & events celebrations, religious rituals, scents, gardens beauty, Medicine, perfumes
Orchid or Bauhinia Blakeana flower meaning:
- One of the popular type orchid of this family belongs to the Ancient Greek term which means “Testicle” due to the shape of the rounded roots.
- The beautiful flower use in the meaning of clever leaf, a symbol of wisdom. Hope, good luck and bookmark making in studies.
- Govt: people republic of china use it in the meaning of foreign inappropriately.
10 facts about Orchid Bauhinia Blakeana Flower:
- Orchid Bauhinia Blakeana is the native, famous and well-known flower of Hong Kong.
- The flower consist of bulky bushy leaves and purplish-red color
- The length of the plant leaves is 7-10 cm (2.8–3.9) inches.
- Width of the leaves are 10-13 cm (3.9–5.1) inch.
- It is two-sided symmetric and can be split into two parts.
- It consists of stem, root or floating stocks.
- Its parasitic species get their food from fungi that live inside their roots.
- It is also known as a clever leaf in the native country.
- From early 1997 it is featured on Kong’s regional flag, military coats and coins.
- In china, it means foreign and declared inappropriate by the Chinese Government people republic of china
- In Hong Kong, the statue of the plant established in famous square that is Golden Bauhinia.
- Originally the flower color is pinkish purple but flag of the country featured as white color.
- It is also the popular flower of Chiayi city in Taiwan
- It is the flower plant family.
- All over the world, there are more than 25,000 species of the flower found.
- It is reported that the orchid flowers is 04 times as of birds Nos and mammals on the planet.
- It grows in every continent.
- The small size is fit in doll houses.
- Its species vanilla orchid grows as crop orchid.
- It has the tiniest in the world of plants and flowers.
- A single orchid seedpod could possess upto 3 million seeds.
- It takes longer to grow the plant.
- The flower can survive upto 100 years.
- It is the most popular house and garden plant.
- The extracts of orchids widely use in the perfume industry, flavors (Vanilla is one of the famous flavor) and in the traditional medicine of Asian countries.
- Some evidence shows that it exists on the planet since 100 million years.
- It has most resemblance with human faces
- They are believed as Chief of dishonesty/cheating, it cheats female bee behaving as a male bee.
- In Victorian times people were hunting orchid tree.
Why is Orchid (Bauhinia Blakeana) of Hong Kong?
Every country has unique emblems which range from anthem, uniform, tree, bird, animal and a flag alongside this country also has a national flower to represent its gardens, trade and forest habitation. All the national flowers signify certain principles that a nation stands for. Let’s know the national flower of Hong Kong.
Although there is no national or official flower of Hong Kong but due to the flower popularity and its symbolism the people of hong kong finally decided to make Bauhinia flower as their national flower. So, in recent years, the Orchid Bauhinia or Blakeana flower becomes the most popular flower of Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong charming flower has many built-in abilities in addition to which it is also used in traditional medicinal use, festivals, special events, perfumes, medical uses. Historically it is a very old flower family and has many records comparatively like largest species, smallest size seed, long aliveness.
Besides these qualities, it is also featured on military, Military/arms uniform coat, coins and the local flag of Hong Kong etc. Due to all the above-mentioned facts and properties, this Attractive, lovely flower becomes the national flower of Hong Kong country.
Other similar flowers are: rhododendron, ceibo-erythrina