Aroids	Bamboo	Banana	Calycanthus	Camellia
Davidia	Ferns	Hosta	Magnolia	Mosses
Rhododendron					Search

In 1869 Jean Peirre Armand David, a French missionary and botanist, discovered an unusual new tree species in the mountainous Sichuan province of Western China. The detailed sketches which he made showed; ghost-like, white leaves which looked like 3 cornered serviettes. He proposed to call the tree the "Chinese dove tree". Unfortunately he was not able to collect any fertile seed from the tree Later, a British nursery man, James Veitch, sent plant collectors to China and in 1899, Ernest Wilson collected fertile seed from the Davidia involucrata, named after the original finder, and sent back to England. Davidia involucrata or handkerchief tree can be found in our garden near to the coffee corner.

Davidia involucrata was number 3 on the BBC list of endangered trees. However, this list now seems to have been deleted from their website.