"Dave Poole" wrote in message
...
Charlie Pridham wrote:

Couple of things I failed to ID from Madeira this October, anyone got any
suggestions?

Bit of a tricky one Charlie - it is clearly a member of
Caesalpiniaceae (part of the former Leguminosae) and it is possibly
one of the far-eastern/Pacific Cassias (Pink Shower Trees), or a form
or hybrid of the highly variable Bauhinia variegata (Orchid Tree).

My first thoughts were that it must be Bauhinia - florally, it is a
very close match from the pic, but I'm not happy about the foliage. In
Bauhinia, the leaves tend to be either deeply cleft at the apex making
them appear to look like a camels foot (another common name) or can be
broadly or narrowly heart shaped. They are also alternately arranged
along the stem, but in the pic the leaves appear to be strongly
pinnate. If you have any closer shots of the foliage, we can probably
nail it down to the Bauhinia or Cassia bakeriana.

Neither will survive permanently out of doors on the mainland I'm
afraid, and rather doubt that they could be considered long term
survivors on Tresco. The only Bauhinia I've managed to succeed with
out of doors here is B. yunnanensis, which is a magnificently exotic
climber with 4-5cm. wide, purplish-pink, flowers when grown against a
warm, sunny wall. You have to grow it from seed though (Chilterns
used to offer it) and it takes 3-5 years to flower. I don't think
that even The Plantsman stock it.

Dave Poole
Many thanks for the suggestions, I have seen Bauhinia's and I don't think
its one of those, as you said the foliage of my mystery tree is very pinnate
and at the time I thought of cassia but could not find any mention of there
being pink ones!

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
National collection of Clematis viticella cvs