Botanical name: Bauhinia tomentosa      Family: Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family)

Yellow Orchid Tree is usually a scrambling, many-stemmed shrub or small tree reaching 4 m in height, the branches often drooping, with many slender twigs. The flowers are pale yellow, but the petals are often pinkish in the bud. Leaves are deeply divided for almost half their length, with a small apical appendage between the lobes; each lobe is oval to almost elliptic, most often small about 2.5 x 2.5 cm, but may be up to 8 cm, leaf stalk 1-3 cm long. Flowers are bell-shaped, up to 7 cm long, beautiful and distinctive, drooping, solitary, with large, lemon-yellow petals, 1-3 of which have a dark maroon patch at the base and turning a veined reddish brown with age. Fruit is a woody pod, slender, pale brown, velvety, pointed, 10-11 x 1.5-2 cm, dehiscent, splitting on the tree to release 6-12 seeds.
Medicinal uses: The root bark is vermifuge. It is used internally to treat conditions of the large intestine. An infusion of the root bark is used as an external application to treat inflamed glands, abscesses and skin conditions. The stem bark is astringent. It is used as a gargle for the mouth. The flowers are used as a remedy for dysentery and diarrhoea. The fruit is said to be diuretic. An infusion of the rind is used as an astringent gargle.

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The flower labeled Yellow Orchid Tree is ...