Bauhinia purpurea L.
Butterfly Orchid Tree, Butterfly Tree, Butterfly-tree, Hawaiian Orchid Tree
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 purpurea is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar, and widely introduced elsewhere in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Common names include orchid tree, purple bauhinia, camel's foot, butterfly tree, and Hawaiian orchid tree.
Text from Wikipedia, “Bauhinia purpurea”, 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.
At a glance
Also known as Bauhinia castrata Blanco; Bauhinia coromandeliana DC.; Bauhinia kurzii Prain; Bauhinia purpurea subsp. corneri de Wit; Bauhinia purpurea subsp. violacea de Wit and 18 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a rainy season, June to October in the northern hemisphere, at the year's mean temperature, so called neither winter nor summer.
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the year's rain (1535 mm of 1981 mm) falls in June to October, whose mean temperature, 26.0 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 26.1 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.
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 1981 mm a year, wettest July at 394 mm, driest January at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1981 mm a year at the habitat, 1535 mm of it June to October. Wettest month July at 394 mm, driest January at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 839 mm to 3545 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 26 to 42 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 42 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).
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 14.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 14.0 °C, the absolute minimum 9.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 10.1 °C to 23.4 °C), warmest day 32.6 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.0 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 70% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 29 / 22–32 | 30 / 26–34 | 32 / 29–35 | 33 / 30–37 | 31 / 29–38 | 28 / 27–35 | 28 / 26–32 | 28 / 26–31 | 28 / 27–31 | 29 / 26–32 | 29 / 26–30 | 28 / 24–31 |
| Night °C | 19 / 10–23 | 20 / 13–24 | 22 / 16–25 | 24 / 20–26 | 25 / 21–27 | 24 / 21–27 | 24 / 20–26 | 24 / 20–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 22 / 18–24 | 21 / 15–24 | 19 / 11–24 |
| Rain mm | 9 / 2–21 | 10 / 1–33 | 27 / 3–64 | 79 / 7–158 | 186 / 21–278 | 377 / 69–860 | 394 / 95–988 | 309 / 119–583 | 246 / 120–351 | 209 / 47–362 | 112 / 11–213 | 23 / 5–54 |
| DLI | 36 / 28–37 | 39 / 33–41 | 42 / 39–44 | 40 / 37–46 | 36 / 32–46 | 30 / 25–36 | 26 / 23–32 | 27 / 23–34 | 31 / 28–35 | 31 / 28–34 | 31 / 27–32 | 32 / 26–34 |
| RH % | 56 / 50–60 | 55 / 48–60 | 57 / 45–62 | 61 / 43–64 | 64 / 45–67 | 69 / 54–72 | 70 / 61–73 | 69 / 63–72 | 68 / 60–70 | 67 / 53–69 | 63 / 51–67 | 59 / 51–62 |
Each figure is the median across the 220 grid cells holding the 348 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 1420:5060 (18.975, 73.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.1 °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 220 distinct grid cells holding the 348 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1420:5060 (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 19.00_73.125, lapse-corrected -86 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 11 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Tarun Meena, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) renjus box, 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 purpurea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Moringa oleifera Ben oil tree
Murraya koenigii Curryleaftree
Cassia fistula Golden Rain
Caryota urens Fishtail Palm
Gmelina arborea Lamiaceae
Magnolia champaca Champak, Champak tree, Joy Perfume Tree, Champaca, Yellow Champaka, Orange Chempaca, Orange Champak, Orange Champaka, Chempaca Merah, Sapu, Cempaka KuningOther Bauhinia 5 in the reference
Bauhinia divaricata Fabaceae
Bauhinia galpinii African Plume
Bauhinia lunarioides Anacacho orchid
Bauhinia monandra Jerusalem-date
Bauhinia variegata Camel's foot tree 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 71 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








