The MGS Forum
Plants for mediterranean gardens => Trees and Shrubs => Topic started by: John J on September 24, 2011, 12:46:59 PM
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Bauhinia variegata is a popular street tree in Cyprus. Less common is Bauhinia forficata. The flowers are much more delicate with narrower petals and the leaves are more deeply divided and tapering (acuminate). Unlike B. variegata that flowers in the spring B. forficata waits until the hottest time of the year, July/August. The flowers open before dawn and you need to catch them very early to see them at their best as by around 9-10 am the sun has done its worst. Probably one reason it is not as popular as perhaps it should be is that the trunk and branches are covered in very nasty little thorns. Not advisable to place it near a path.
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Last April I took a photo of this Bauhinia variegata in Irapetra on the south coast of Crete.
It is a street tree and has no irrigation at all.
Two gardens close by have taken cuttings from it and have young trees in their gardens.
The street tree had no foliage at all and the blooms were smaller than those in the neighbouring gardens. However it was full of blossom. :)
Last weekend I went to look at it only to find that it had been hacked!!
It looked as though this is a regular thing, every few years.
Daisy :)
(http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss112/daisyincrete/sandy13007.jpg)
Street tree last April.
(http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss112/daisyincrete/sandy13012.jpg)
One of the young trees in a neighbouring garden.
(http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss112/daisyincrete/001-7.jpg)
Street tree last weekend. :'( :'( :'(
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Daisy, the Bauhinia street trees here in Limassol suffer the same indignity at regular intervals and keep coming back. They are very easily grown from seed, in fact that's how I got mine. I took a ripe pod from a street tree, it had 7 seeds and they all germinated. I kept 3 and gave away the rest. Mine self seed every year and need to be weeded out while they're small. Beautiful flowers though, easy to see why one of it's common names is the Orchid Tree.
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yes - given a good wrecking with saws, they seem to shrug their shoulders and press on regardless, as my photo shows
I posted hereNow one of those plants (in Polis) has been hacked back again. It is almost leafless. The photo demonstrates how vigorously it shoots after hard pruning. Imagine all the branches before pruning - the shade was dense!
(click on the 'Quote from' link)
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Quite similar to what "tree surgeons" do in London streets these days!
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Bauhinia variegata in flower now, as is the variety B v 'Candide'.
Incidently, my original posting of what I said was B acuminata I've since discovered is incorrect and should be B forficata. I have not yet discovered how to correct this, maybe one of our excellent moderators could oblige?
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Done, John.
You can always change your own postings - all you do is click on the MODIFY tab, which brings your original message back on the writing screen. Change it as you want, then click on the POST button underneath.
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Thanks for that, Alisdair, I'll remember it for any future need.
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My grandmother who lived in Brisbane used to wait with impatience for the Bauhinia street tree cutters every year. She couldn't stand the mess they made and much preferred the trees with new growth. I don't remember at what time in the year they were pruned. Certainly the seed pods were regarded as part of the mess.
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Just a little bit to add...
I sowed seed of B. variegata three years ago (collected from the dirt below a street tree in Paphos). This year most of the saplings are flowering for the first time, heights ranging from 1.5 to 2m. That is, these trees do not require too much patience.
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Its very sad the way trees are "pruned" to-day by "tree-surgeon". Branches are simply cut-off at a convenient height with no reference given to the future shape, shade effect or the flowering characteristics of the tree. The French especially are famous for beheading their magnificent planes, supposedly planted by Napoleon to keep his troops and horses cool while on manoevres, leaving unslightly fingers pointing forlornly to the sky.
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Going back to Bauhinia furficata, it is a tough and prolific self-seeder. A real fighter, well equipped to survive casual damages (maybe grazing?) : if you try to pull the hundreds of seedlings that come up everywhere, their tap root (that goes down to Australia, for all I know) clings to the rocks down under and refuses to come, untile the stem breaks; and then soon you have a new shoot coming up.
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Two shruby Bauhinias have started to flower in my garden; Bauhinia tomentosa which is a tall multibranched species that is nicer when grown as a standart, flowers are pendant, yellow with a dark blotch innside, leaves are highly scented when touched. The other is a smaller species B. natalensis with small white flowers with a pinkish midvein, it is a good pot plant.
Both flower through all summer, attract butterflies and in our area Palestine Sunbirds which seems to adore its nectar.
Both species are easily grown from seeds and are higly recommended.
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Great plants, Oron.
I particularly liked Bauhinia tomentosa. Does it stand up to wind? What about water requirements?
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Alice,
In my experience B. tomentosa is a tough plant, it is deciduous during winter therefor winds are less of a problem.
It does require some irrigation during summer, in case it lacks water it will drop most of its leaves but will still flower abundantly.
By the way the leaves are nicely scented when touched.
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It has an extremely wide distribution in the wild, from pretty dry parts of southern Africa through to damp parts of India. There's probably a considerable variation in drought hardiness, depending on where the seeds come from.
And yes, after seeing Oron's photos, I want it too!
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Bauhinia forficata taken this morning. It always flowers around this time of the year and is a welcome sight in the early morning before the sun gets too hot. Later in the day, after about 10am, the flowers droop and shrivel until in the afternoon they are limp and brown and rather unsightly.
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Lovely! (though in the spell of very sunny weather we're having here in England, your description of the flowers in the afternoon could be applied to how I feel as I rotovate the veg patch!).
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Our Bauhinia variegata 'Candide' has put on a stunning display this year.
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Such a pretty tree John. I envy you having the space for such a lovely tree. The one I used to admire in a local town, never did recover from it's council hacking.
Daisy :)
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What a lovely tree, John. But I suppose it couldn't survive long hot dry summers without any watering?
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Surprisingly enough, Alisdair, our tree seems to do amazingly well with little or no summer watering. It's on the boundary of our property alongside a road and is not on an irrigation line.
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By mistake I've done an irrigation experiment on Bauhinia. I grew some from seed, about 6-7 years ago. One seedling I potted on and then potted out into the garden in a sheltered spot. The rest of the seedlings stayed in the pot in the nursery. Those in the nursery had soon sent out roots through the bottom of the pot and no pulling could shift it so it just stayed in place. Gradually one seedling took precedence so I chopped back the rest and after a couple of years they gave up. I now have two trees. The one I planted out gets weekly irrigation and is barely chest height. The one in the nursery has gone through the roof and is probably 3.5 metres high. It is flowering for the first time this year and turns out to be white. It gets spray irrigation for 30 minutes every day summer, winter.
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What species is your thirsty Bauhinia, Fleur?
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Similar and different...
I, also, had some languishing in pots in that sometime-excuse-of-a-thing called the 'nursery bed'.
There, too, they rooted vigorously through the bottom of the pot(s). I could not leave them there as they were obstructing an intended view. When it came time to move them, I didn't get much root, despite my best efforts with pick-axe digging round them - the roots were delving deep. But, having got them out, I pruned the roots back to undamaged parts and then pruned the tops heavily (over half), and removed more leaves back to the petioles (I like to let them reject the petioles in their own time, allowing them to abciss nicely). They then got planted out in the usual local soil (deep marl with some stones), staked, and watered. I presume they all rooted well, because they soon began pushing out new leaves and shoots, and they have flowered very well this spring. They are four years old.
Sequential piccies attached...
BTW: they are Bauhinia variegata.
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I believe my white Bauhinia is B. alba. The seeds were from Traude Gotsis and I've found a photo of the mother. I'm also posting photos of other Bauhinias in her collection. All the photos were taken by Traude.
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Fleur - I love the Bauhinia galpinii.
It makes me think 'tree nasturtium'!
PS. I've added my transplanting piccies to my preceding post.
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Reliable as ever, our Bauhinia forficata in full bloom this morning. I never cease to be amazed at the fact that it chooses to flower at the hottest time of the year. Also that it does it with little or no summer water as it is situated in a bed of mainly phlomis and euphorbias that are not irrigated.
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I never rubbed the leaves of my Bauhinias tomentosa plants, for two reasons: I had read that it smells of rubber, and I didn't have the courage to crush any leaf on these seedlings.
But now that they have grown to become 1.70m tall 6-month old young trees--and after reading Orion on their scented leaves--I finally put my act together: no smell.
Maybe it depends on the heat it gets, and now it's on average 17o here.
My plants/seeds come from a town in East DRC. I saw them in one spot only, used loosely for a hedge. When you pick the drying pods they soon snap open with a little cracking noise. The germination rate was very high so I had to destroy a few seedlings, and now 10 beautiful crammed plants wait to be transplanted to Greece.
I also am growing a climbing Bauhinia, which has very interesting growth habit. I will post pictures when it blossoms hopefully this spring.
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I have never seen any seeds on our Bauhinia forficata but earlier this year a small plant appeared on the other side of our southern boundary wall, right next to the tarmac of the road. It is at least 10-12 metres from the parent plant and, as I said, on the other side of a wall, so if it is a sucker it's a tenacious one. Removing it was one of those jobs that kept getting put off as there were more pressing things to attend to. It has grown to about 30cm high and yesterday as I drove out of the gate I noticed that it was flowering. ???
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A nice case of fortune favouring the otherwise-too-busy.
Hope it moves OK.
Mike
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Our Bauhinia variegata and B. variegata 'Candida' are beginning to perform again.
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Lovely, John.
I see others starting to bloom, too.
Mine are dawdling, but I'm sure they'll get there.