Davidia involucrata is one of the great botanical discoveries of the nineteenth century, brought to Western attention by the French missionary and naturalist Abbe Armand David, who encountered it in China in 1869. It remains rare in cultivation even there. A broadleaf deciduous tree growing to sixty feet at maturity, it is pyramidal when young and rounds out with age into a dense, attractively branched canopy. The bark is warm orange-brown, and fall color, though variable, can produce good oranges and reds. But the tree is grown above all for its spring flowers: small button-like heads surrounded by two large, unequal white bracts that flutter in a breeze like pairs of white handkerchiefs — or doves at rest, depending on the light.

Patience is genuinely required. Grown from seed, a dove tree may take ten years to flower and will not always flower every year thereafter. Grafted specimens from a nursery bloom sooner. Plant in full sun to partial shade in rich, moist, well-drained soil and protect from drying winds, which the large bracts catch easily. Afternoon shade in hotter climates reduces stress. Hardy in zones 6 through 8, it is best used as a specimen tree where it can be seen from a window in late spring, when the white bracts catch the morning light.