Bauhinia Purpurea

This relatively compact but quite fast-growing oriental-looking tree bears extremely beautiful, fragrant, pink, five petalled orchid-like flowers. The branches are clad with large, deeply two-lobed leaves. Native to South China and south east Asia, it thrives outdoors in such places as Hawaii, coastal California, southern Texas, and Florida. Although the tree can stand a small amount of frost it will also do well in a conservatory. Very easy to grow from seed, in traditional medicine systems it is often used to treat various disease.