Handkerchief tree Davidia involucrata

A native of China, the handkerchief tree was once considered to be the Holy Grail of exotic flora. After an adventure worthy of Indiana Jones, legendary botanist Ernest Wilson eventually found this spectacular tree and managed to send back seeds to England.

The story of how the handkerchief tree arrived in Britain would not seem out of place in an Indiana Jones adventure, assuming he had an interest in botany. First seen by a French priest called Father Armand David on a trip to China in 1868, it was not actually introduced to Britain for another 35 years, and then only after a quite remarkable sequence of events.

Specimens of Davidia involucrata had been sent to Kew, and nurseryman Henry Veitch expressed an interest in obtaining some seeds from which to grow the tree. In 1899, he commissioned a young botanist called Ernest Wilson to go to China to find the handkerchief tree. Having never been abroad and not speaking a word of Chinese, this presented quite a challenge for the 22-year-old Wilson.

With only a hand-drawn map and a few written instructions to guide him, Wilson set off into the remote Yunnan region of China in search of the single specimen known to exist. On his way, he escaped local bandits, survived a potentially deadly illness and nearly drowned when his boat overturned in a rocky river. When he did finally find the location of the tree, Wilson was mortified to discover that it had been cut down and used to build a house. Fortunately he did find other specimens and sent the seeds back to England in 1901 before going on to spend many years in China, finding hundreds of other plants and fame in the process.

Also known as the dove tree or ghost tree, Davidia involucrata has a subspecies called vilmoriniana. Hardier than the original species, it is also a more common sight in Britain, and is found in parks and gardens, especially in the more temperate west.