• Specie: Golden Shower (cassia fistula 臘腸樹/豬腸豆)
• Location: Pok Fu Lam Road outside HKU MTR station, HKU parking lot

When I first came across the Golden Shower (cassia fistula) tree on Caine Road, I thought there were really a rare species in Hong Kong. That is still kind of true, but ever since I taught myself to recognise its magnificent blooms, I’ve been able to identify more and more members of this species, such as this young member in the heart of central, and now two members, one mature, and a young one, all within line-of-sight of the HKT MRT station.

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If you come out from the MTR station onto Pok Fu Lam Road, the mature Golden Shower is sited just to your left towards the west. It grows non-descriptly on the side of the curb, until it blooms.

Bright blooms

Small yellow beads

The younger of the two is even harder to spot, located inside the University of Hong Kong Campus’ parking area. It is obviously a young specimen, with limbs no thicker than a parking metre poll.

But this is obviously a more cherished member, with a sign clearly marking its species, including its Chinese name, which means enigmatically ‘pork sausage bean’ 豬腸豆, according to the official sign. It is also called ‘preserved sausage tree’ 臘腸樹 in another Chinese moniker.

Young Golden Shower

Hard to miss

Pork Sausage Bean

Categories:Golden Shower, Spring blooms, treelover, urbantrees, Urbantrees of Hong KongTags: cityscape, Golden Shower, HKU, landscape, Pok Fu Lam Road, urbanscape