Mountain Ebony

Bauhinia variegata is a flowering plant of the legume family, native from China through South-East Asia to the Indian subcontinent. Its common names include orchid tree and mountain ebony. It is a small to medium tree up to 15 metres tall, deciduous in the dry season and almost leafless while it flowers. The flowers are bright pink or white, five to seven centimetres across, and the seedpod is 20 to 30 centimetres long and twists into a helix before bursting open with an audible clack. It is a popular ornamental grown for its scented flowers. In South Asian cooking the edible buds, called kachnar, kovidara, koiralo or kanchan, go into curries, stir-fries and pickles. The page says the tree is considered very sacred in Hinduism, where it is called kovidara and is depicted on the Dharma Dhwaja flag. In Nepal the flower and buds make the achaar served at the Ghode Jatra festival. In some areas it has become naturalised and invasive.