Author: Pierre ex Gagnep.
KEY TO THE VARIETIES
a. Fertile stamens pubescent, 1.5-2 cm long; petals yellowish green or two of them purple blotched.
............. Bauhinia bassacensis bassacensis.
b. Fertile stamens sparsely hairy at base to glabrous, 2.5-3.5 cm long; petals all or only two purple blotched and purple veins.
.................... Bauhinia bassacensis backeri .
Bauhinia bassacensis Pierre ex Gagnep. var. bassacensis
Morphological description (see also description of Genus Bauhinia ; Subgenus Phanera and Section Phanera )
Large tendrilled climber; young branches rusty tomentose, later glabrous.
Leaves: stipules auriculate, up to 6 mm diameter, caducous; petioles glabrescent, 2-7 cm; lamina ovate, up to 19 by 13 cm, 9-13-nerved; bifid 1/2 - 2/3 with narrow sinus; tip of lobes triangular obtuse to acuminate; base cordate to truncate; upper surface glabrous, lower brownish tomentose to glabrescent.
Inflorescence: (bassacensis Bauh infl 386326; bassacensis Bauhinia infl FT7) lateral or terminal, many-flowered, broad racemes or panicles; axis rusty tomentose to glabrescent; pedicels up to 7 cm; bracts linear-lanceolate, tomentose, up to 8 mm; bracteoles similar but smaller, inserted near the middle of the pedicel; pedicels up to 7 cm.
Flowers: (bassacensis Bauhinia fl FT7)Buds ovoid-ellipsoid, brownish tomentose, c. 7 mm. Hypanthium c. 1 mm. Calyx during anthesis splitting into 2 segments forming right angles with the pedicels, 5-8 mm long. Petals pubescent, yellowish-green, sometimes two of them purple-blotched at tip, subequal, blade deltoid, narrowly ovate to suborbicular with crenulate margin, 10 by 7 mm; claw 10-25 mm long. Fertile stamens 2 (rarely 3), filaments c. 2 cm, pubescent; anthers 1-2 mm, opening by a longitudinal slit; reduced stamens 7, 3-9 mm long; staminode 1, short, filiform, between the stamens. Ovary stipitate, brownish pilose; style 7-10 mm, glabrous towards the small stigma.
Pods glabrescent, smooth; 9 by 3 cm.
Seeds 3-5, flattened, orbicular, c. 1 cm diameter.
Distribution
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and northern peninsular Malaysia (Kedah, Kelantan).
Habitat
Common liana in evergreen and mixed deciduous forests.
Bauhinia bassacensis Pierre ex Gagnep. var. backeri (de Wit) S.S. Larsen
Morphological description (bassacensis Bauhinia fl 256024 ;bassacensis Bauh Reinw f16 )
Deviates from the typical variety by the narrower, greyish-pubescent buds and the longer, sparsely hairy to glabrous filaments of the fertile stamens and by the purple blotched petals , usually all of them but sometimes only two of them.
Distribution
Malesia: Borneo (Sabah), W Java.