Bauhinia variegata

Bauhinia variegata L., Sp. Pl. 375. 1753; Baker in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 2: 284. 1879; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed.1. 179. 1918 (Reprint 1973); Ali, Fl. Pak. 54: 243. 1973; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 10: 10; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org; keralaplants.in

Medium-sized deciduous tree, up to 15 m tall, bark dark brown, nearly smooth, young shoots brown pubescent. Leaves alternate, petiolate; petiole 2-3.5 cm long, pulvinate at apex and base; leaf lamina 5-15 cm long, as broad as or broader than long, suborbicular or broadly ovate, cleft 1/4th to 1/3rd of way down into two obtuse lobes, pubescent beneath when young, pubescence persisting a long and in the axils of the veins, subcoriaceous, base usually deeply cordate, 11-15-nerved, midvein excurrent into free small outgrowth. Flowers zygomorphic, bisexual, pentamerous, perigynous, large, 7-12 cm across, fragrant, purplish, appearing when tree is leafless, in short axillary or terminal, few-flowered grey-pubescent racemes; flower buds fusiform, smooth, subsessile; bracts and bracteoles minute, tomentose, deltoid. Calyx grey-tomentose; tube slender, 2.2-2.5 cm long; limb spathaceous, nearly as long as tube, 5-toothed at apex. Petals 5, 4-6 cm long, obovate or oblanceolate, with long rather broad claws, 4 petals pale-purple and the fifth with dark purple veins. Fertile stamens 5, filaments nearly as long as petals, slender; staminodes 1-5 and small or absent. Ovary pubescent along the sutures, long-stalked, stipe 1-1.7 cm long, ovary unilocular with many ovules, marginal placentation; style long, curved; stigma small, capitate. Legumes 15-30 cm x 1.8-2.5 cm, hard, flat, dehiscent, valves woody, stipitate, stipe ca. 2.5 cm long. Seeds 10-15, compressed, suborbicular, ca. 1.0 cm in diameter.

Flowering and Fruiting: July to September
Common Names: Variegated Bauhinia, Mountain Ebony, Orchid Tree; Kachnar, Kaliar, Koliar (Hindi)