TREE 13Photographs by Nik
Orchid tree
Bauhinia sp.
A pale, mottled trunk forms a clear Y shape beside a clipped hedge. The open crown reveals much of the sky behind it.
Observations
A pale, mottled trunk forms a clear Y shape beside a clipped hedge. The open crown reveals much of the sky behind it.
About this identification
The Y-shaped, pale mottled trunk, open crown and broad drooping leaves with occasional wine-red ones match an orchid tree between flushes, and a maroon cluster of wilted flowers hangs from a twig. The photographs never catch a clear two-lobed leaf, so this identification is the least certain of the Bauhinia group.
Identified from photographs of bark, leaves, fallen litter and epiphytes against the Malaysian campus-tree flora. Moderate and tentative records would be settled by a close-up of flowers or fruit.
Species reference: Bauhinia purpurea