Dove Tree

Davidia involucrata

“Two huge white bracts hang from every flower. It looks like doves in a tree.”

The botanist Ernest Wilson spent years searching China to bring this tree back to Western horticulture. In spring, each flower is flanked by two large white bracts — one small, one large — that hang and flutter in the wind like white handkerchiefs or landing doves. No other tree produces this effect. Hardy to Zone 5. Slow to bloom (can take 10 years from seed) but utterly unforgettable when it does. Plant it and be patient.