Bauhinia L

Unarmed trees, shrubs, or vines. Leaves unifoliolate, petioled, bilobed, palmately nerved; stipules caducous. Racemes with few to numerous flowers. Calyx spathiform, irregularly splitting into 1-2 segments; corolla slightly irregular, white to pink-purple, occasionally crimson, large and showy; androecium with 3, 5, or 10 functional stamens; hypanthium evident. Legume stipitate, dehiscent, oblong, laterally compressed, coriaceous to ligneous. Seeds few to several. Pantropical; about 300 species (ISE)

1. Functional stamens 3

     2. Vine…. B. corymbosa

     2. Shrub or tree, not a vine

          3. Shrub, flowers brick-red, legume to 5…B. galpinii

          3. Tree, flowers pink, red, or violet, legume much longer than 5…B. purpurea

1. Functional stamens 5 or 10

     4. Functional stamens 5

          5. Flowers varicolored or white when dried, legume 8" or longer…B. variegata

          5. Flowers pink-purple to crimsen-red, no legume…B. X blakeana

     4. Functional stamens 10

        6. Flowers bright yellow to white, campanulate… B. tomentosa

        6. Flowers white, not campanulate… B. acuminata (WU1, ISE, PBCC)