Photo credit: @Ianare (Wikicommons)
10 Hong Kong orchid
Scientific name: Bauhinia x blakeana
Of course, our list concludes with the very symbol of Hong Kong itself: the bauhinia flower. Interestingly, this is a hybrid plant whose parents have no ties to Hong Kong at all—namely the rather hilariously named Purple Camel’s Foot (Bauhinia purpurea) and Camel’s Foot Tree (Bauhinia variegata). Because of the cross-breeding involved, the Hong Kong orchid is sterile and can only be reproduced through grafting and root cuttings. In other words, the bauhinia flowers you see around the city are essentially clones of the same blooms seen a whole century ago.
In the 1880s, a French Catholic missionary called Jean-Marie Delavay came across the flower near Pok Fu Lam and took a cutting to propagate. The original plant might have been a happy accident of nature, but without Delavay’s efforts, it would have simply died out. Several years later, one such cutting from Delavay’s cultures was offered to the Botanical Gardens, where it got properly documented and named. These large crimson-purple flowers bloom from September to June, and even if you can’t see it in nature, this blossom is proudly emblazoned across our banknotes, coins, and of course, our flag.