Author: (Raf.) Wunderlin
Morphological description
Trees or shrubs , unarmed (in palaeotropics) or with thorns.
Leaves bilobed; intrastipular trichomes small.
Flowers unisexual (dioecious) or bisexual. Hypanthium short, turbinate. Calyx 2-5-lobed or -dentate in upper part. Petals 5, subequal. Male flowers: stamens 10 free; anthers opening by longitudinal slits. Female flowers: stigma large, peltate.
Pods linear oblong, woody, indehiscent or dehiscent.
Seeds suborbicular, one funicular aril-lobe long, the other short.
Distribution
Six species, pantropical. In Malesia only one species: Bauhinia malabarica .