Bauhinia variegata

Common Name: orchid tree

Family: Fabaceae

Common Synonyms: Phanera variegata

USDA Hardiness Zone: 9a-11

Growth Habit: Shrub or tree

Origin: Eastern Asia (India, China)

FISC Category: 1

FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No

Introduction Date: 1936

IFAS Assessment:

• North: OK
• Central: CAUTION
• South: INVASIVE

Description

Semi-deciduous tree up to 15 m tall. Leaves alternate, petioles up to 3 cm long, thin, cleft at apex with two rounded lobes. Blades have 11-13 veins extended from heart-shaped or round base. Showy flowers with fragrance, in multi-flowered clsutered at or near stem tips. Flowerers during early spring (January-February) during leaf-fall. Flowers are 5 petaled, with overlapping petals, magenta to indigo, with dark red and yellow on upper petal, and 5 stamens. Fruit flat, oblong pod with 10-15 seeds, 30 cm long.

Habitat

Disturbed areas, hammock margins, occasionally in globally imperiled pine rocklands

Comments

Seeds remain viable for over a year. Prefers to grow in full sun conditions or partial shade.

Control Methods

• Manual: Mechanical: May be controlled through the use of prescribed fire.
• Chemical: Basal bark (10% trichlopyr ester), cut stump (50% trichlopyr amine). [IFAS]
• Biological: NA

Control Notes

NA

References

Langeland, K.A., H.M. Cherry, C.M. McCormick, K.C. Burks. 2008. Identification and Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas-Second Edition. IFAS Publication SP 257. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Langeland, K.A., J.A. Ferrell, B. Sellers, G.E. MacDonald, and R.K. Stocker. 2011. Integrated management of non-native plants in natural areas of Florida. EDIS publication SP 242. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

IFAS, Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. 2018. Bauhinia variegata. https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/bauhinia-variegata/#2. Accessed on June 11, 2018.

Strangers in Paradise, Impact and Management of Nonindigenous Species in Florida, Chapter 2: Florida's Invasion by Nonindigenous Plants: History, Screening, and Regulation, by D.R. Gordon and K.P. Thomas, pp. 21-37. Island Press, Washington, DC, 1997.