Bauhinia

For other uses, see Bauhinia (disambiguation).

Bauhinia
Temporal range: Late Paleocene to recent[1]
Bauhinia divaricata flowers
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Cercidoideae
Tribe: Bauhinieae
Genus: Bauhinia
L. (1753)[2]
Type species
Bauhinia divaricata
Plum. ex L. (1753)
Species

192 (in 2023); see text[3]

Synonyms[2][3][4]
  • Alvesia Welw. (1859)
  • Amaria Mutis ex Caldas< (1810)
  • Ariaria Cuervo (1893)
  • Bracteolanthus de Wit (1956)
  • Cansenia Raf. (1838)
  • Caspareopsis Britton & Rose (1930)
  • Casparia Kunth (1824)
  • Mandarus Raf. (1838)
  • Monoteles Raf. (1838)
  • Pauletia Cav. (1799)
  • Perlebia Mart. (1828)

Bauhinia (/boʊˈhɪniə/)[5] is a large genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae[6] and tribe Bauhinieae,[7] in the large flowering plant family Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. The genus was named after the Bauhin brothers Gaspard and Johann, Swiss-French botanists.

Many species are widely planted in the tropics as orchid trees, particularly in India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Nepal and southeastern China. Other common names include mountain ebony and kachnar. Before the family was reorganised,[6] a number of genera including the lianas of genus Phanera were placed here (see related genera). In the United States, the trees grow in Hawaii, coastal California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. There are native species, like Bauhinia lunarioides native to Texas and widely planted in the Southwest as a landscape plant.[8]

Parts of some species of bauhinia like B. purpurea and B. malabarica are used in Filipino cuisine (known collectively as alinbánban or alinbángbang,[9] "butterfly").[10]

Bauhinia × blakeana is the floral emblem of Hong Kong—a stylized orchid tree flower appears on the flag of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Airlines (formerly CR Airways) uses 'Bauhinia' as its radio callsign in air traffic communication.

  1. ^ Yi Gao; Ai Song; Wei-Yu-Dong Deng; Lin-Lin Chen; Jia Liu; Wei-Cheng Li; Gaurav Srivastava; Robert A. Spicer; Zhe-Kun Zhou; Tao Su. "The Oldest Fossil Record of Bauhinia s.s. (Fabaceae) from the Tibetan Plateau sheds light on its Evolutionary and Biogeographic Implications". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. doi:10.1080/14772019.2023.2244495.
  2. ^ a b "Genus: Bauhinia L." Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2007-03-29. Archived from the original on 2012-05-03. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference POWO was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Wunderlin RP (2010). "Reorganization of the Cercideae (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae)" (PDF). Phytoneuron. 48: 1–5.
  5. ^ Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607; OED: "Bauhinia"
  6. ^ a b The Legume Phylogeny Working Group (LPWG). (2017). "A new subfamily classification of the Leguminosae based on a taxonomically comprehensive phylogeny". Taxon. 66 (1): 44–77. doi:10.12705/661.3. hdl:10568/90658.
  7. ^ Sinou C, Forest F, Lewis GP, Bruneau A (2009). "The genus Bauhinia s.l. (Leguminosae): a phylogeny based on the plastid trnL–trnF region". Botany. 87 (10): 947–960. doi:10.1139/B09-065.
  8. ^ "SEINet Portal Network - Bauhinia lunarioides".
  9. ^ Merrill, Elmer Drew (1903). A dictionary of the plant names of the Philippine Islands. Bureau of Public Printing, Department of The Interior. p. 128 – via University of Michigan Digital Collections.
  10. ^ Seidemann, Johannes (2005). World Spice Plants. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. p. 64. ISBN 9783540279082.