Common Name:
Orchid Tree, Mountain Ebony
Some 250-300 species of trees, shrubs and vines. Leaves alternate, simple, kidney-shaped to bilobed. Flowers usually in terminal clusters, orchid-like with 5 irregular petals. Fruit oblong, leathery to woody pod. Found in the tropics and subtropics in the Old and New World.
Bauhinia: after the brothers Jean Bauhin (1541-1613) and Gaspard Bauhin (1560-1624), physicians and botanists.
Pronunciation:
ba-HIN-ee-a
Family:
Fabaceae (Leguminosae)