Author: Prain
Morphological description (see also description of Genus Bauhinia ; Subgenus Phanera and Section Palmatifolia )
Tendrilled climber with slender branches.
Leaves entire to more or less deeply divided; stipules tiny, early caducous, 1-2 mm; petioles slender, 1-4 cm; lamina varying in shape, 2-9 cm long; 5-13-nerved; glabrous or pubescent.
Inflorescence lateral and terminal corymbs, often elongating during anthesis, up to 10 cm; pedicels filiform, 3-4 cm; bracts subulate, 1-2 mm; bracteoles tiny, inserted about the middle of the pedicel.
Flowers: Buds globose, apiculate, 3-5 mm. Hypanthium tubular, 2-3 mm. Calyx splitting into 2-3(-4) reflexed lobes. Petals yellowish-white with a red patch at the claw, subequal, obovate to lanceolate, with crenulate margin, 10-11 mm, with a distinct claw, usually pubescent on the dorsal side. Stamens 3 fertile; filaments glabrous, c. 5 mm; anthers ellipsoid, opening by a central pore in each theca; reduced stamens with small anthers and staminodes 5-7, shorter than or equal to the fertile ones. Ovary distinctly stipitate, c. 2 mm, glabrous or, rarely, hairy along the suture or all over; stipe c. 1 mm, with a tuft of ferrugineous hairs at base; style c. 1.5 mm; stigma small, capitate.
Pods ovate oblong, glabrous, woody, shortly stipitate, 6-10 by 2-3 cm.
Seeds 1-3, broadly ovate, compressed.
Distribution
Malesia: Sumatra, Malay Peninsula (C and S part), Borneo.
Note
This is a very variable species with regard to indumentum and leaf shape; this has led to the description of several taxa. Larsen & Larsen (1996: 530) have maintained some of these as varieties. Transitional forms between several of them do occur.
KEY TO THE VARIETIES
1a. Ovary glabrous or nearly so, stipe often hairy, sometimes with a tuft of reddish hairs at mouth of hypanthium; leaves entire, emarginate or bifid 2
1b. Ovary and stipe hairy all over; leaves entire b. Bauhinia wrayi blumeana
2a. Pedicels and buds glabrous or slightly pubescent; leaves 5-9-nerved, nerves thin beneath 3
2b. Pedicels and buds hairy or sparsely puberulous; leaves 7-13-nerved, nerves prominent beneath f. Bauhinia wrayi moultonii
3a. Leaves entire, rarely emarginate 4
3b. Leaves entire, emarginate or bifid 6
4a. Leaves ovate with truncate to shallowly cordate base, 5-nerved, apex acuminate, entire a. Bauhinia wrayi wrayi
4b. Leaves cordate to broadly ovate with cordate base, (5-)7-9-nerved, apex acuminate, entire or slightly emarginate 5
5a. Leaves glabrous, cordate, often glaucous beneath e. Bauhinia wrayi cardiophylla
5b. Leaves hairy beneath, sometimes only on the nerves or petiole, cordate to broadly ovate c. Bauhinia wrayi borneensis
6a. Leaves 2/5 bifid, tip of lobes obtuse, 9-nerved g. Bauhinia wrayi rubella
6b. Leaves entire, emarginate to 1/2 bifid, tip of lobes obtuse to acute, 5-7-nerved d.Bauhinia wrayi cancellata
a. Bauhinia wrayi Prain var. wrayi Bauhinia wrayi wrayi
Morphological description
The typical variety is recognizable by leaves ovate, entire, 3-7 cm long, 5-nerved, nerves thin beneath; apex acuminate, base truncate to shallowly cordate, lower surface appressed rusty pubescent later glabrescent or glabrous; pedicels and buds glabrous or sparsely pubescent.
Distribution
Malesia: Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia.
Habitat
In various types of forests and open land, usually at lower altitudes.
Vernacular name
Lorsy (Bisaya).
Note
Var. sumatrana was described from Bengkulu Range, Lubok Tandai. It is quite different from the Sumatra collections from Leuser National Park, which Larsen & Larsen (1996: 531) have described as var. blumeana .
b. Bauhinia wrayi Prain var. blumeana K. & S.S. Larsen (Bauhinia wrayi blumeana )
Morphological description
Leaves entire, ovate; nerves 5(-7); apex rounded to acute, sometimes slightly emarginate with a short mucro; upper surface glabrous or sparsely pubescent; lower rusty pubescent, denser on the nerves. Inflorescence rusty pubescent. Deviates from all other varieties by the ovary being hairy all over.
Distribution
Malesia: endemic to N Sumatra.
Habitat
Montane forest, altitude 1200 m.
c. Bauhinia wrayi Prain var. borneensis K. & S. S. Larsen Bauhinia wrayi borneensis
Morphological description
Leaves cordate to broadly ovate, 3-8 cm long, 7-9-nerved; base cordate; apex rounded, acute to acuminate, entire or slightly emarginate; underside reddish brown hairy, sometimes only on the nerves and the petiole. Pedicels and buds glabrous or sparsely pubescent.
Distribution
Malesia: endemic to Sabah and adjacent Kalimantan.
Habitat
Lowland evergreen forest.
Note
The holotype is a fruiting specimen; Meijer 2407 (K, L) from Nunakan I., N of Tarakan, is a flowering branch, regarded as paratype.
d. Bauhinia wrayii Prain var. cancellata (Ridley) K. & S. S. Larsen Bauhinia wrayi cancellata
Morphological description
This variety and var. rubella are morphologically rather close in having the pedicels and buds glabrous or nearly so. They differ, however, conspicuously in leaf shape. Var. cancellata, a mountain endemic, has ovate leaves which on the same shoot can vary from entire to bifid 1/3 - 1/2, tip of lobes obtuse to acute, with 5-7 nerves, while var. rubella has leaves broader than long, ± subreniform, divided less than 1/2, with tip of lobes obtuse, and with 9 nerves.
Distribution
Malesia: Malay Peninsula (Negri Sembilan), only known from the type locality.
Habitat
Mountain forest, 800-900 m altitude.
e. Bauhinia wrayi Prain var. cardiophylla (Merr.) K. & S. S. Larsen Bauhinia wrayi cardiophylla
Morphological description (wrayi v card Bauh Reinwf21 )
Deviates from all other varieties by its entire, cordate, glabrous leaves , c. 7 cm long, often glaucous beneath; nerves (5-)7-9; pedicels and buds glabrous.
Distribution
Malesia: Borneo (Brunei, Sarawak).
Habitat
Lowland forest.
f. Bauhinia wrayi Prain var. moultonii (Merr.) K. & S. S. Larsen Bauhinia wrayi moultonii
Morphological description (wrayi v moult Bauh Reinwf27 )
The leaves of this variety are very variable, broad ovate to orbicular, generally larger than in the other varieties, 4-9 cm across, and with the apex varying from entire, emarginate, to bifid; underside rusty pubescent, particularly on the nerves; nerves 7-13, prominent beneath. Pedicels and buds hairy.
Distribution
Malesia: Sumatra, Borneo.
Habitat
In swamp forest and on sandy soil, also on sandstone and heath forests, up to 800 m altitude.
g. Bauhinia wrayi Prain var. rubella (de Wit) K. & S. S. Larsen Bauhinia wrayi rubella
Morphological description
See under var. cancellata.
Distribution
Malesia: Sumatra.
Habitat
Lowland primary forest.
Note
A specimen, Gall 104 (K, L) from the summit zone of Peëut Sago (Aceh, N Sumatra) has leaves with the tips of the lobes acute. With some hesitation Larsen & Larsen (1996: 532) have referred it to this variety.