Author: Merr.
Morphological description (see also description of Genus Bauhinia ; Subgenus Phanera and Section Phanera)
Tendrilled liana ; young branches brownish villous.
Leaves: stipules broad ovate to auriculate, 5-7 mm, tomentose on both sides; petiole brownish villous, 1.5-2.5 cm long; lamina rigid coriaceous, suborbicular to subreniform, 3.5-5 by 4-7.5 cm, bilobed 1/4-1/3; tip of lobes subacute to obtuse, base cordate; 9-11-nerved; upper surface glabrous, lower densely reddish-brown velvety.
Inflorescences lateral and terminal, short pyramidal, few-flowered, dense racemes, up to 5 cm long; whole inflorescence reddish-brown velvety; pedicels very short, thick, 2-3 mm; bracts orbicular to ovate with acute tip, up to 9 mm, outside ferrugineous villous, inside glabrous; bracteoles similar but slightly smaller.
Flowers: Buds obovoid, 10-15 mm, densely ferrugineous villous. Hypanthium short, thick, cup-shaped, c. 5 mm long. Calyx splitting into 5 reflexed, strap-shaped sepals, glabrous inside, 15 by 4 mm. Petals subequal, elliptic to obovate-oblong, c. 2 cm long, short-clawed, outside densely silky ferrugineous pubescent, inside glabrous. Stamens 3 fertile, filaments glabrous, c. 12-15 mm long; anthers ellipsoid, c. 6 mm, opening by a longitudinal slit; staminodes 2, filiform, 5-10 mm. Ovary shortly stipitate, c. 7 mm long, densely reddish-brown velvety as is the c. 7 mm long style; stigma small, peltate.
Pods oblong-obovate, base acute, apex obtuse, shortly apiculate, c. 6 by 3 cm, pubescent when young, later glabrous.
Seeds 1(-2), flat, suborbicular, c. 18 mm long.
Distribution
Malesia : Sumatra (Eastcoast).
Notes
1. Bauhinia rahmatii is a very distinct species. De Wit (1956) regards it as synonymous with Phanera dasycarpa Miquel, this is, however, a name given to a single specimen collected by Teijsmann from Sumatra. The holotype in U consists of one sterile branch and a loose, woody-valved pod, c. 25 by 6 cm, without seeds; the valves are brownish velutinous. The texture and indumentum of the leaves, however, do not suggest this to be identical with B. rahmatii; Larsen & Larsen (1996: 490) are not able to place this collection with certainty.
2. B. rahmatii may be related to Bauhinia ridleyi .