Historedia
Episode 2 of 2

First Description of Davidia

When
1869
Where
Baoxing, China
Part of
Père Armand David receives giant panda skin and describes Davidia

David described the pocket handkerchief tree in 1869, sending specimens to Paris for formal classification.

David first described the tree in 1869 as a single tree found at over 2,000 m altitude. He sent dried specimens to Paris, where Henri Baillon described it as a new genus and species in 1871. The genus Davidia is named after David, honoring his naturalist contributions.

Sources

  1. Davidia involucrata Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-01
  2. Armand David Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.