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Malabar Bauhinia
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Malabar Bauhinia
ative Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Malabar Bauhinia • Assamese: kotra • Bengali: karmai • Garo: bakbakhol, beolphiu, migong thak • Hindi: अम्ली amli, अम्लोसा Amlosa • Kannada: ಬಸವನಪಾದ basavanapaada, ಮಂದಾರ Mandara, Kudugulu, Cheppura, ಆಚಲು Aachalu • Konkani: कोरट korat • Malayalam: ആരമ്പുളി aarampuli • Marathi: अम्ली amli, कोरळ koral • Nepali: टाँकी tanki • Oriya: gumbati • Sanskrit: अम्लपत्रः amlapatrah, अश्मन्तक ashmantaka, अश्मयुक्त ashmayukta, यमलपत्रः yamalapatrah • Tamil: மலையாத்தி malai-y-atti, புளியாத்தி puli-y-atti, Vellathi, Mantharai • Telugu: Pedda-ari, Pul-ari,పులి చింత Puli chinta, Pul-dondra
Botanical name: Piliostigma malabaricum    Family: Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family)
Synonyms: Bauhinia malabarica, Bauhinia acida, Bauhinia reniformis
Malabar Bauhinia is a small or moderate sized deciduous tree. Bark is rough brown, peeling in linear flakes, fibrous, red inside. Leaves are broader than long, 1.5-4 inches long, 2-5 inches broad, divided through 1/3 of the length, 7-9 nerved, slightly heart-shaped at base, rigidly leathery, glaucous and smooth beneath. Flowers are borne in stalkless racemes in leaf axils, 1.5-2 inches long, often 2-3 together. Flowers are 1/2 inch long, dull-white, often uni-sexual, on very slender stalks, which are 1 in. long. Male and female flowers are usually on different stems. Sepal cup has 5 equal triangular teeth. Petals are spade-shaped, equal. Pod is 7-12 inches long, 2-2.5 cm broad, on a stalk 1 in. long, flat flexible, many-seeded, more or less straight reticulate veins, which starting diagonally from both sutures meet in the middle. Seeds are 20-30.
Identification credit: Shrikant Ingalhalikar Photographed at Nagla forest, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Maharashtra.
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