Kenya

What is the National Flower of Kenya?

Kenya-National-Flower-Orchid

The National Flower of Kenya is Orchid. It is also known as Bauhinia Blakeana or Orchid Bauhinia. The Orchid is a semi perennial flower that grows back year after year after blooming. It can be found in Kenya in the wild but it is cultivated worldwide. The most popular colors of this flower are purple, red and white.

The people of Hong Kong country call the leaf of flower as Clever Leaf.  The Kenya country has a huge exporter of flowers of various species, especially tropical orchids. That’s why some have suggested that the tropical orchid could function as the national flower. The eye-catching flower observes as mark of wisdom. The native people believe it as a good luck during studies, hope, and make bookmarks using the leaves.

Classification of Orchid Flower

  • Flower Public Name: Orchid
  • Color:   Red, Purple
  • Shape: Umbrella-shaped pinnacle/peak
  • Family:  Fabaceae
  • Species : Bauhinia * Blakeana
  • Order:    Fabales
  • Genus:    Bauhinia
  • Kingdom: Plantae
  • Petals:      No. of  petals Four (04) to six (6)
  • Native Areas: ,  Kenya, Hong Kong
  • Height : 15-30 centimeter  
  • Blooming season:  November to March
  • Resemblance: Heart of Butterfly, human faces.
  • Symbol and Meaning:  use as  wisdom symbol , Hope, and Chasity, happiness, modesty and good fortune
  • Useful uses:    Perfumes, Festival & Events celebrations, Medicine, religious rituals, scents, gardens beauty.

Orchid or Bauhinia Blakeana flower meaning:

  • One of the popular type orchid of this family belong to Ancient Greek term which means “Testicle” due to shape of the rounded roots.
  • The beautiful flower use in the meaning of clever leaf, symbol of wisdom. Hope, good luck and bookmark making in studies.
  • The Government of people republic of china use it in the meaning of foreign inappropriately.

10 Remarkable facts about Orchid Flower 

  • Orchid is the inborn and renowned flower of Kenya.
  • Orchid is the official and native flower of Kenya.
  • The flower consist of  bulky bushy leaves and purplish red color
  • It is two-sided symmetric and can be split into two parts
  • The Length of the plant leaves is 7-10 cm (2.8–3.9) inch.
  • It consist of stem, root or floating stocks
  • Width of the leaves are 10-13 cm (3.9–5.1) inch.
  • Its parasitic species get their food from fungi which live inside their roots.
  • It is also known as clever leaf in the native country.
  • 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.
  • 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 most popular house and garden plant.
  • Some evidences shows that it is existed on the planet since 100 million years.
  • It has most resemblance with human faces
  • In some countries it is believed as Chief of dishonesty/cheating, it cheat female bee behaving as male bee.
  • It was famous in Victorian times people were hunting orchid tree.
  • The  specie vanilla orchid grow as crop orchid.
  • The Kenya National flower has the tiniest in the world of plants and flowers.
  • One orchid seedpod could possess upto 3 million seeds.
  • The time need required is very long to grow the plant.
  • The orchids extracts of widely use in perfume industry, flavors (Vanilla is one of the famous flavor) and in traditional medicine of Asian countries.

Why is Orchid the National Flower of Kenya

Every country has unique emblems which range from anthem, uniform, tree, bird, animal and a flag alongside this country also have 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 Kenya.

Read also: The national flower of Sudan

Since the early time, flowers have attracted us with their unique beauty and cool fragrances. But some of these exceptional ‘gifts of nature’ possess unbelievable characteristics that are unknown to many of us. State Flowers are a special design or visual object representing a quality.

The family flower is not officially declared as state flower but due to some unavoidable circumstances the said flower got popularity that is approximately two hundred and fifty ( 250) types of orchids are native to Kenya and they are available in every color and texture throughout the country. Another cogent reason the famous book named “Orchids of Kenya” written by Joyce Stewart.

 The Kenya pleasant flower has many built-in abilities in addition to which it is also uses in traditional medicinal use, festivals, special events, perfumes, medical uses. Historically it is very old flower family and have 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 local flag of Hong Kong etc. Due to all the above-mentioned facts and properties this Attractive, lovely flower become the national flower of Kenya country.