Bauhinia forficata Link

  • Authority

    Isley, Duane. 1975. Leguminosae of the United States: II. Subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (2): 1-228.

  • Family

    Caesalpiniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Bauhinia forficata Link

  • Description

    Species Description - Glabrate or pubescent spiny shrub or tree to 15 m. Leaves simple, ovate, 8-12 cm, 1 -1.6 r, cleft ± 1/2 with usually acute slightly divergent lobes (but lobes sometimes rounded or erect), glabrous above, glabrate to tomentulose below. Thorns nodal, paired or solitary, usually recurved, or absent on some specimens. Flowers 2(-4), in reduced, intercalary, barely pedunculate racemes. Pedicel-hypanthium l-2.5(-3.5) cm; calyx spathiform, cylindric-lanceolate, 5-7 cm, whitish-green, tomentulose, splitting in a single piece; petals white with green midrib, subequal, 5-8(-10) cm, linear and no more than 4 mm wide to oblanceolate and to 2(-2.5) cm wide, tapering to short claw; stamens 10, of 2 lengths; pistil glabrate to pubescent proximally. Legume elastically dehiscent, stipitate (2-3 cm), oblanceolate, 12-20 cm long, to 1.8 cm wide; valves glabrous, coriaceous. Seeds few.

  • Discussion

    B. candicans Hort. B. grandiflora Hort. p.p. B. comiculata Hort. B. aculeata Hort. p.p. B. furfuracea Hort. B. longiflora Hort. CN n = 14 (Sharma and Raju, 1968; as B. corniculata Benth.). My delimitation of cultivated B. forficata includes all thorny bauhinias with large white flowers excepting B. aculeata. Bauhinia forficata is overtly variable in form of leaf and flower (especially petal length and shape). Wunderlin (annotations) recognizes some three varieties, at least two of which are in the United States. I defer formal recognition pending his publication of the names. Of the horticultural synonyms, B. candicans Benth. and B. corniculata Benth. are Brazilian species closely related to B. forficata, the former by description dubiously distinct. B. furfuracea does not exist. The other names are overt misapplications.

  • Distribution

    S Florida and urban California, one record from Arizona. Cult, ornamental. April-Sept.

    United States of America North America|