Author: (Miquel) Prain
Morphological description (see also description of Genus Bauhinia ; Subgenus Phanera and Section Palmatifolia )
Large, tendrilled liana; all young parts glabrous; young branches terete, finely striate.
Leaves: stipules early caducous (not observed); petioles slender, 0.5-2 cm; lamina chartaceous, entire, narrowly ovate to elliptic; apex acuminate with blunt, rarely slightly emarginate tip; base cordate, 7-15 by 5-9 cm; nerves 5(-7); both surfaces glossy, glabrous, except for a few appressed hairs on the nerves on the lower side.
Inflorescence terminal or lateral, slender racemes, 10-20 cm long, axis strongly ribbed, brownish puberulous as the rest of the inflorescence; pedicels 15-20 mm, sturdy, striate; bracts narrow lanceolate, c. 5 mm, caducous; bracteoles subulate, not opposite, 3-4 mm, inserted about the middle.
Flowers: Buds globose to ovate, apiculate, brownish silky pubescent, smooth, margins of sepals not particularly raised, 5-7 mm long. Hypanthium broad tubular, ribbed, gibbous at base, 5-7 mm long. Calyx splitting into 3-4 patent to reflexed lobes, inside hary at the base. Petals yellow turning red, blade ovate-oblong, outside rusty pubescent, c. 17 mm long including the 3-4 mm claw. Stamens 3 fertile; filaments glabrous, slightly enlarged at base, c. 10 mm; anthers spherical, c. 1 mm, opening by a central pore in each theca; staminodes many, up to 15, up to 5 mm long, thickened at base. Ovary c. 5 mm, on a 2-3 mm, reddish-brown, pubescent stipe, hairy along the suture; style glabrous; stigma indistinct.
Pods (not seen) according to Prain (1897: 188) glabrous, narrowly oblong, c. 10 by 2.5 cm.
Seeds 4-6, irregularly orbicular, c. 1 cm across.
Distribution
Malesia: Malay Peninsula (coastal zone of Penang and Perak and on Batu Togo). Also on Mentawei Isl. (Siberut) W of Sumatra.
Note
Baker, (1878: 285), mentions Bauhinia lucida under 'doubtful species'; this refers to Wall. Cat. 5779 B, a sterile specimen with two free leaflets, a collection that can not be identified.