Davidia involucrata is the only member of its genus. It is also known as Dove tree. The huge white ‘flowers’ are bracts surrounding a purplish-red flower head. The bracts can be as much as 30 cm long and flutter in the wind like white doves or pinched handkerchiefs; hence the English names for this tree. The tree has large, heart-shaped leaves that can grow up to 15 centimeters in length.
In its native habitat, the Handkerchief tree is found in valleys and mixed forests, thriving in well-drained soil. It prefers a cool and moist climate so the Hope Valley suits it. While not currently listed as endangered, the Handkerchief tree faces threats in its natural habitat due to habitat destruction. Out tree flowers in May, and is more florifurous in some years than others.
History
There are two different stories as to how the genus Davidia got its name
A) It is named for the French missionary Abbé Père David and keen naturalist who worked in China. David first described the tree in 1869 as a single tree found at over 2,000 m (6,562 ft) altitude in West Sichuan in 1869, and sent dried specimens to Paris. This version of the facts is denied by some.
B) The name “Davidia” pays tribute to Sir David Scott, a Scottish gardener and horticulturist and it was named by E.H. Wilson in the early 1900s. He was an English botanist and plant collector employed by the Veitch Nurseries which were a renowned family-operated group of nurseries based in Devon. He was told to go to visit the well known plant collector Dr. Augustine Henry, and from him learn the location of a Davidia specimen Henry had found more than a decade earlier. Here is the story of his search for the tree in his own words.
“On a half-page of a notebook, Dr. [Augustine] Henry had sketched a tract of country about the size of New York State and had marked the spot where he had found growing a single tree of the Davidia, the only example he had discovered in a trip, which extended over six months…The place was among high mountains in the sparsely populated region bordering the provinces of Hupeh and Szechuan and south of the mighty Yangtsze River. This locality was my destination and this solitary tree my sole objective.
I took a cross-country road and on the afternoon of the 25th reached the hamlet of Ma-huang-po and the house where Dr. Henry had stayed when he found the Davidia tree on May 17, 1888. Did the people remember Dr. Henry? Did they know the K’ung-tung (local name of Davidia)? To these and similar questions they pleasantly answered in the affirmative. Would someone guide me to the tree? Certainly! We sallied forth, I in the highest of spirits. After walking about two miles we came to a house rather new in appearance. Nearby was the stump of Henry’s Davidia. The tree had been cut down a year before and the trunk and branches formed the beams and posts of the house! I did not sleep during the night of April 25, 1900.
On May 19th, when collecting near the hamlet of Ta-wan, distant some five days southwest of Ichang, I suddenly happened upon a Davidia tree in full flower! It was about fifty feet tall, in outline pyramidal, and with its wealth of blossoms was more beautiful than words can portray…Now with a wider knowledge of floral treasures of the Northern Hemisphere, I am convinced that Davidia involucrata is the most interesting and most beautiful of all trees which grow in the north temperate regions. The distinctive beauty of the Davidia is in the two snow-white connate bracts, which subtend the flower proper…The flowers and their attendant bracts are pendulous on fairly long stalks, and when stirred by the slightest breeze they resemble huge butterflies or small doves hovering amongst the trees.“
Aristocrats of the Garden (1926)
Wilson later found a further grove of the trees from which he collected seeds and specimens which he luckily managed to save when he nearly drowned when his boat overturned in a rocky river on his return journey. It took some time for the new introductions to flourish but once established they were stunning. The Times used to print a notice every May announcing when the famous Kew Handkerchief tree was in flower. Hordes of Londoners would then descend on the garden to see the enormous white flowers.