Bauhinia acuminata

Bauhinia acuminata is a species of flowering shrub native to tropical southeastern Asia. Common names include dwarf white bauhinia, white orchid-tree and snowy orchid-tree.^[1] The exact native range is obscure due to extensive cultivation, but probably from Malaysia, Indonesia (Java, Borneo, Kalimantan, Lesser Sunda Islands), and the Philippines.^[2]

Bauhinia acuminata
Flower in Bardhaman, West Bengal, India.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Genus:	Bauhinia
Species:	B. acuminata
Binomial name
Bauhinia acuminata L.

It grows two to three meters tall. Like the other Bauhinia species, the leaves are bilobed, shaped like an ox hoof; they are 6 to 15 centimetres (2+1⁄4 to 6 in) long and broad, with the apical cleft up to 5 centimetres (2 in) deep; the petiole is 1.5 to 4 centimetres (1⁄2 to 1+1⁄2 in) long. The flowers are fragrant, 8 to 12 centimetres (3+1⁄4 to 4+3⁄4 in) in diameter, with five white petals, ten yellow-tipped stamens and a green stigma. The fruit is a pod 7.5 to 15 centimetres (3 to 6 in) long and 1.5 to 1.8 centimetres (1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in) broad. The species occurs in deciduous forests and scrub.^[1][3][4]

It is widely cultivated throughout the tropics as an ornamental plant. It may be found as an escape from cultivation in some areas, and has become naturalised on the Cape York Peninsula, Australia.^[1]

The plant has a number of ethnobotanical uses around the world. The roots are used by the Javanese to treat cough and cold and in India the leaves and bark are used to treat asthma.^[5] It is also used in many culinary dishes of Odisha

Gallery

• 
  Seedling
• 
  Flower
• 
  Young green pod
• 
  Pods
• 
  Foliage
• 
  Stamens (filaments, anthers), style, stigma
• 
  Dried pods
• 
  Flower and bud in West Bengal, India.
• 
  Flowers and pods of a shrub in India

References

1. Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk: Bauhinia acuminata
2. "Bauhinia acuminata". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
3. Flowers of India: White Orchid Tree
4. Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan ISBN 0-333-47494-5.
5. "NParks | Bauhinia acuminata". www.nparks.gov.sg. Retrieved 2022-02-14.

• Media related to Bauhinia acuminata at Wikimedia Commons