Bauhinia rahmatii
Content
Description
Tendrilled liana; young branches brownish villous.
Leaves: stipules broadly 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.
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; 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.
Seeds 1 (or 2), flat, suborbicular, c. 18 mm long.
Taxonomy
Bauhinia rahmatii may be related to B. ridleyi.
Bauhinia rahmatii is a very distinct species. De Wit regards it as synonymous with Phanera dasycarpa Miq. but this is 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, so we are not able to place this collection with certainty.