Bauhinia monandra Kurz

  • 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 monandra Kurz

  • Description

    Species Description - Small tree, the young growth puberulent. Leaves simple, suborbicular, cordate or not, 7-15 cm, .8-1.2 r, cleft ca 1/3 with rounded lobes; blade coriaceous, puberulent along nerves on lower surface. Flowers in short, erect, pubescent intercalary racemes. Pedicels short, 3-9 mm; hypanthium 1.5-2 cm; calyx spathiform, lanceolate-acuminate in bud, 1.2-2 cm, usually splitting in single cleft; petals primarily red and pink (standard darker than others), somewhat unequal, long-clawed, 3.5-5 cm long and 1-2.5 cm wide, not overlapping; functional stamen 1. Legume elastically dehiscent, stipitate, narrowly oblong, flat, to 2 dm long and 2-3 cm wide, coriaceous. Seeds few-many.

  • Discussion

    Caspareopsis monandra (Kurz) Britt. Sc Rose (1930) CN n = 14 (Sharma and Raju, 1968). 2n = 42 (Pantulu, 1942). The more common Bauhinia variegata flowers primarily in winter and spring, and B. monandra follows in the summer. Ledin and Menninger (1956) describe flower color as follows: “When the flower first opens, the top petal (standard) is a great splash of red on a bright yellow background. The other four petals are white or very pale pink, liberally splattered with red dots. After twenty-four hours, the red, yellow and white all change to a bold pink color.” Sharma and Raju (1968) characterize two cytological types of Bauhinia monandra differing in genome characters and meiotic irregularities. Both are diploids 2n = 28 as were 23 out of 24 species investigated. Unfortunately Sharma and Raju also attribute a somatic 42 to B. monandra on the basis of reports by Atchison (1951), Pantulu (1942), and Poucques (1945). The first two authors do not list this species. Poucques (1945) indeed reports 2n = 42, but her B. monandra is a liana with tendrils! Whatever the species, the existence of an apparent triploid in Bauhinia is of unusual interest.

  • Distribution

    Subtropical Florida, perhaps sporadically elsewhere. Slightly cult, ornamental. (May-)June-July(-Nov.). Pink Orchid Tree. Origin uncertain (de Wit, 1956; Fawcett and Rendle, 1920), said by Wunderlin (in litt.) to be of se Asia, now common in tropics, both hemispheres.