I really do not want to collect plants with snowy white flowers even though white blooms are attractive and appealing in their own way. However when I read that the Bauhinia Acuminata gives off a nice fragrant I cannot resist adding this plant to my collection. I have seen this plant growing in abundance not too far from my house as the large snowy white blooms cannot be missed even from afar. I did not detect any fragrance from the flowers but well, I thought perhaps I was mistaken. Picking a dry brown pod from the plant, I buried in under some damp soil under some shade. Soon enough the baby plants came out. Leguminous plants are easy to grow from the seeds. I decided to keep only one plant so I dug out the other baby plants. What I did not expect was that within 3-4 months this plant has started to bloom ! What a wonderful surprise indeed ! When I first spied the bud a few days ago, I thought perhaps it was another new leaf shoot as it did not seem possible it would bloom in such a short period ! The plant is hardly a foot tall right now and just one stem despite heavy with big green leaves. The leaves are what they described as bi-lobed, shaped like an ox hoof - rather like the butterfly leaves and very attractive by themselves.
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| The leaves are unusual - shaped like butterflies |
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| Side view |
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| See the new buds (longish) on right hand side |
Other common names for this plant include Dwarf White Bauhinia, White Orchid Tree and Snowy Orchid Tree
. This plant must be one of the easiest that I have grown so far - fuss free, grows easily and what a fast bloomer ......!
