Species
+

Bauhinia monandra Kurz

Jerusalem-date, Napoleon's Plume, Pink Butterfly Tree, Pink bauhinia, Orchid tree, Napoleon’s plume

Climate known 55 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Bauhinia monandra is a species of leguminous trees in the family Fabaceae. Common names include pink bauhinia, orchid tree, and Napoleon's plume. The tree is native to Madagascar, where it is widespread in lowland humid forests and dry forests. It has naturalised in Myanmar, Australia, Christmas Island, the Caribbean, southern USA, Colombia, Brazil, and the Pacific Islands. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Bauhinia monandra”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Bauhinia

Bauhinia is a large genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae and tribe Bauhinieae, in the large flowering plant family Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. The genus was named after the Bauhin brothers Gaspard and Johann, Swiss-French botanists.

Text from Wikipedia, “Bauhinia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Kurz
Native to
Madagascar
Wild records
85 in range· 71 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Oct, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1519mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jan 428 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, December to February at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.4 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1519 mm a year, wettest January at 428 mm, driest June at 5 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 17.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Bauhinia kappleri Sagot; Bauhinia krugii Urb.; Bauhinia persichii F.Muell.; Bauhinia porosa Boivin; Bauhinia porosa Boivin ex Baill. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, December to February at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.4 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1064 mm of 1519 mm) falls in December to February. The temperature curve is flat, 3.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1519 mm a year, wettest January at 428 mm, driest June at 5 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1519 mm a year at the habitat, 1064 mm of it December to February. Wettest month January at 428 mm, driest June at 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1181 mm to 1972 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 17.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 17.3 °C, the absolute minimum 15.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 13.4 °C to 21.1 °C), warmest day 30.9 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Jul to 31 °C in Oct; mean night from 19 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1519 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 74 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 15.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)15.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 31–44RH 55–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 74 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 27–3029 / 26–3030 / 26–3130 / 26–3229 / 24–3228 / 22–3028 / 22–3028 / 22–3130 / 23–3231 / 25–3431 / 26–3430 / 27–32
Night °C23 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2522 / 18–2521 / 16–2419 / 14–2219 / 13–2119 / 14–2120 / 14–2221 / 15–2322 / 17–2423 / 18–25
Rain mm428 / 273–505375 / 273–470199 / 162–28465 / 47–14418 / 7–865 / 0–626 / 1–766 / 2–849 / 4–5336 / 20–82111 / 45–135261 / 180–310
DLI35 / 33–3834 / 32–3737 / 34–3836 / 31–3833 / 27–3431 / 24–3231 / 24–3336 / 28–3741 / 33–4244 / 38–4544 / 40–4540 / 38–41
RH %67 / 64–7067 / 65–7165 / 62–6862 / 56–6658 / 53–6456 / 50–6355 / 49–6355 / 49–6256 / 49–6358 / 50–6460 / 55–6464 / 61–67

Each figure is the median across the 74 grid cells holding the 85 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2048:4585 (-12.425, 49.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 74 distinct grid cells holding the 85 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2048:4585 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -12.50_49.375, lapse-corrected +164 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 314 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMadagascar· introduced: Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Somalia, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Christmas I., New Guinea, Queensland, Western Australia, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil Northeast
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-16.1, 46.65 · in the densest population, 65 records (76% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 85 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 71 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1207 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 85 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Bauhinia monandraBauhinia monandraBauhinia monandraBauhinia monandraBauhinia monandraBauhinia monandraBauhinia monandraBauhinia monandra

Photographs: (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) aubrey_moore, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Andrea Gantzer, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Abdiel Antonio Marrugo Pascual, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Quincey W, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) EDMILSON FERNANDO JARQUIN LOPEZ, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Bauhinia monandra, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antioxidant activity of leaf extracts from Bauhinia monandra
Adriana C. C. Argolo (2004) · Bioresource Technology
Insecticidal action of Bauhinia monandra leaf lectin (BmoLL) against Anagasta kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), Zabrotes subfasciatus and Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Bruchidae)
Maria Lı́gia Rodrigues Macedo, Maria das Graças Machado Freire, Maria Barbosa Reis da Silva, Luana Cassandra Breitenbach Barroso Coelho (2006) · Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Hypoglycemic activity of two Brazilian Bauhinia species: Bauhinia forficata L. and Bauhinia monandra Kurz.
Fábio de Sousa Menezes, A.B.M. Minto, Halliny S. Ruela, Ricardo Machado Kuster (2007) · Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia
Optimization of Bauhinia monandra seed oil extraction via artificial neural network and response surface methodology: A potential biofuel candidate
Aramide M. Akintunde, Sheriff Olalekan Ajala, Eriola Betiku (2015) · Industrial Crops and Products
A new Bauhinia monandra galactose-specific lectin purified in milligram quantities from secondary roots with antifungal and termiticidal activities
Jayra Dantas de Souza, Maria B.R. Silva, Adriana C. C. Argolo, Thiago Henrique Napoleão (2011) · International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation
Simple method to purify milligram quantities of the galactose-specific lectin from the leaves ofBauhinia monandra
Luana Cassandra Breitenbach Barroso Coelho, Maria B. R. da Silva (2000) · Phytochemical Analysis
Overcoming dormancy of Bauhinia monandra Britt. and Bauhinia ungulata seeds - Caesalpinoideae.
Maria da Conceição Sampaio Alves, Sebastião Medeiros Filho, Manoel Andrade Neto, Elizita Maria Teófilo (2000) · Revista Brasileira de Sementes
Total Flavonoids Content in the Raw Material and Aqueous Extractives fromBauhinia monandraKurz (Caesalpiniaceae)
Ana Josane Dantas Fernandes, Magda Rhayanny Assunção Ferreira, Karina Perrelli Randau, Tatiane Pereira de Souza (2012) · The Scientific World JOURNAL
Isolation of two flavonoids from Bauhinia Monandra (KURZ) leaves and their antioxidative effects
MA Aderogba, A. O. Ogundaini, J.N. Eloff (2006) · African Journal of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicines
Superação da dormência em sementes de Bauhinia monandra Britt. e Bauhinia ungulata L. – Caesalpinoideae
M.C.S. Alves, Sebastião Medeiros-Filho, Manoel Andrade‐Neto, Elizita Maria Teófilo (2000) · Revista Brasileira de Sementes
Potential inhibition of major human cytochrome P450 isoenzymes by selected tropical medicinal herbs—Implication for herb–drug interactions
Segun Johnson Showande, Titilayo O. Fakeye, Marena Kajula, Juho Hokkanen (2018) · Food Science & Nutrition

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Bauhinia 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 114 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.