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Bauhinia acuminata; photograph (c) Sindhu Haridas, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Sindhu Haridas, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-11-10

Bauhinia acuminata L.

Dwarf white bauhinia; Bauhinia

Fabaceae · Borneo, Jawa +7

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Bauhinia acuminata, photograph (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia acuminata, photograph (c) Nadezhda Bortnikova, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia acuminata, photograph (c) Nadezhda Bortnikova, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia acuminata, photograph (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia acuminata, photograph (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia acuminata, photograph (c) white_cheeked_barbet, some rights reserved (CC BY) 31 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
20.5°C
Record low 17.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Apr, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,915mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
33–44DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, December to March (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Bauhinia acuminata is a species of flowering shrub native to tropical southeastern Asia. Common names include dwarf white bauhinia, white orchid-tree and snowy orchid-tree. The exact native range is obscure due to extensive cultivation, but probably from Malaysia, Indonesia (Java, Borneo, Kalimantan, Lesser Sunda Islands), and the Philippines.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bauhinia acuminata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bauhinia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,280 mm of 1,693 mm) falls in December to March. The temperature curve is flat, 3.7 °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. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,693 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,280 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 386 mm, driest month June at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,214 mm to 2,714 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,915 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,693 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 33 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 29, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 20.5 °C, the absolute minimum 17.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 18.8 °C to 24.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.4 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -307 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Bauhinia acuminata through the yearWarmest months April, September, October, November and December, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 21.9 °C; 1,693 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°40°32.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER17.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 33–44RH 56–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 20 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 28–3230 / 28–3130 / 29–3231 / 29–3330 / 28–3229 / 26–3129 / 25–3129 / 25–3331 / 27–3531 / 28–3631 / 28–3531 / 28–33
Night °C25 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2624 / 22–2523 / 20–2522 / 19–2422 / 20–2423 / 22–2525 / 23–2625 / 23–2725 / 23–27
Rain mm386 / 193–504331 / 165–433285 / 155–371126 / 86–28229 / 13–2494 / 1–1945 / 1–2105 / 2–20119 / 5–24756 / 23–309169 / 75–287278 / 197–333
DLI33 / 30–3833 / 32–3736 / 33–3836 / 33–3835 / 31–3633 / 29–3435 / 30–3538 / 34–3942 / 35–4344 / 33–4542 / 30–4537 / 29–41
RH %66 / 63–6866 / 63–6765 / 62–6760 / 56–6758 / 51–6857 / 48–6856 / 47–6856 / 49–6759 / 52–6760 / 54–6861 / 57–6864 / 62–68

Records on both sides of the equator: the 6 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 20 cells that remain: the 14 at least 10° south and the 6 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 20 grid cells holding the 27 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1691:5938 (5.425, 116.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 20 distinct grid cells holding 27 of the 34 in-range records on the southern side of the equator (6 cells poleward of 10° north, 14 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1691:5938 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 5.50_116.875, lapse-corrected -307 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 133 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBorneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Maluku, Philippines, Sumatera, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia · introduced: Sierra Leone, Zaïre, Zimbabwe, China South-Central, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Solomon Is., Caroline Is., Dominican Republic, Windward Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-2.23, 103.32 · in the densest population, 20 records (28% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 71 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 27 of them in the land cells it reads, of 34 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 56 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2800 km away. 402 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 37 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 71 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Bauhinia acuminata, photograph 1did not loadBauhinia acuminata, photograph 2did not loadBauhinia acuminata, photograph 3did not loadBauhinia acuminata, photograph 4did not loadBauhinia acuminata, photograph 5did not loadBauhinia acuminata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Nadezhda Bortnikova, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) white_cheeked_barbet, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Typhonium flagelliforme Typhonium flagelliforme Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, VitaiumEpipremnum amplissimum Epipremnum amplissimum Australia Native Monstera Photo: CC BY, Stella FishDracaena angustifolia Dracaena angustifolia Suji Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te Hsu Tarennoidea wallichii Rubiaceae Calophyllum soulattri Calophyllum soulattri Nicobar canoetree Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioStenochlaena palustris Stenochlaena palustris Climbing Swamp fern Photo: CC BY, Stella Fish

Other Bauhinia 27 in the reference

Bauhinia aculeata Bauhinia aculeata Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Bauhinia bowkeri Bauhinia bowkeri Kei Bauhinia Photo: CC BY, Henry de Lange Bauhinia brachycarpa Fabaceae Bauhinia cheilantha Fabaceae Bauhinia corniculata Fabaceae Bauhinia divaricata Bauhinia divaricata Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, bemmaBauhinia forficata Bauhinia forficata Cow's-foot Photo: CC BY, avocatBauhinia galpinii Bauhinia galpinii African plume Photo: CC BY-SA, DragonetteBauhinia grandidieri Bauhinia grandidieri Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, amantedarmanin Bauhinia grevei Fabaceae Bauhinia hagenbeckii Fabaceae Bauhinia lunarioides Bauhinia lunarioides Texasplume Photo: CC BY, Ricardo Jaimes-López all 28 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Bauhinia linnaei; Casparia acuminata; Mandarus acuminata; Pauletia acuminata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is. +6
Wild records
71 in range · 56 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 18 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 5.50_116.875, lapse-corrected -307 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 39 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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