Trees of Hong Kong and their flowers: spring blossoms and where to find them

Spring is the time of year when Cotton Tree Drive – a busy road connecting Hong Kong Island’s Central business district with the upmarket Mid-Levels residential area – best illustrates how it got its name.

The cotton trees (Bombex ceiba) that line the thoroughfare are one of a number of brightly flowering tree species highly visible at this time of year across Hong Kong.

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The native species, with its large, fleshy cup-shaped flowers that range in colour from bright crimson to a rich mustard, stands straight and stoic for most of the year, its branches often bare. In spring, the cotton tree bursts into bloom, and can be seen lining many streets and thoroughfares across Hong Kong.

Some of the finest examples are a fixture of Hong Kong Park, where there are two individuals designated “old and valuable” by the government. Spectacular cotton trees can also be seen bordering Victoria Park, including three along King’s Road, which bloom in three distinct colour variations – red, orange and yellow.

Another spring blossom is the abundant bauhinia, or orchid tree, of which there are a number of species, native and introduced. The best known is Bauhinia blakeana, a hybrid species whose purplish-pink flower was adopted as the regional emblem of Hong Kong after the 1997 handover of the territory from Britain to China.

Bauhinia trees, members of the legume family, produce an abundance of flowers at this time of the year, and can be found everywhere from parks and roadsides to wilder environments.