Bauhinia divaricata L.
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Authority
Isley, Duane. 1975. Leguminosae of the United States: II. Subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (2): 1-228.
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Family
Caesalpiniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Puberulent shrub or small tree. Leaves simple, rounded, almost square to ovate, 4-12 cm, .8-1.4 r, usually broadly cleft 1/4-1/2 with acute, usually divaricate lobes, densely pubescent to glabrate below, glabrate above. Flowers several in intercalary and terminal racemes. Pedicels 5-10 mm, frequently short-persistent with bracts after flower-fall or bracts alone persistent; hypanthium short; calyx tubular, 12-20 mm, apically bristle-toothed, splitting in 1-2 segments; petals white, fading pink or lavender, unequal, long-clawed, 1-2 cm; functional stamen 1, much exceeding petals; pistil glabrate or villous, the stipe promptly elongating. Legume elastically dehiscent, stipitate (1-3 cm), oblong to linear, flat, 8-15 cm long, 8-15 mm wide. Seeds few.
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Discussion
B. porrecta Sw. (1788) B. aurita Ait. (1789) B. mexicana Vog. (1839) Casparea divaricata (L.) H.B.K. ex Jackson (1895) C. mexicana (Vog.) Britt. & Rose (1930) B. subrotundifolia Hort. CN 2n = 28 (Wunderlin, 1973). Bauhinia divaricata is in institutional plantings in southern subtropical Florida and slightly in cultivation in the Keys. Britton and Rose (1930) credit it to Texas, ostensibly native. The specimen (NY) on which this report is apparently based is from “near Brownsville.” B. divaricata is slightly planted in Brownsville, but neither is native nor naturalized. Marshall Johnston (in litt.) indicates that it freezes down every few years. The delimitation of Bauhinia divaricata adopted herein is that of Wunderlin (in litt.) who regards it as “a highly polymorphic species consisting of numerous local races” and who cites some 36 synonyms, nearly all binomials. Names in recent use by other authors include B. mexicana Vogel (Mexico), B. latifolia, Cav. (Mexico) and B. aurita (Antilles). Only the leaf form usual in U.S. material is described above, the full range of variation being considerably greater: leaves cleft 1/4-3/4, the cleft narrow with nearly parallel margins and erect lobes, to broadly “v” shaped with divergent lobes.
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Distribution
S Florida, s Louisiana, s Texas, perhaps elsewhere. Novelty. June-Nov. as to material seen, said to be all year. Pata de vaca. Antilles, Mexico and Central America, introduced in Old World.
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