First Bloom of the Bauhinia Acuminata

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.

The leaves are unusual - shaped like butterflies

Side view

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 ......!