Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Bauhinia racemosa; photograph (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-10

Bauhinia racemosa Lam.

Bidi leaf tree

Fabaceae · China South-Central, Assam +9

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Bauhinia racemosa, photograph (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia racemosa, photograph (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia racemosa, photograph (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia racemosa, photograph (c) Ramnarayan K, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia racemosa, photograph (c) Ramnarayan K, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bauhinia racemosa, photograph (c) Ramnarayan K, some rights reserved (CC BY) 62 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.8°C
Record low 7.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
34°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,309mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–43DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Bauhinia racemosa, commonly known as the bidi leaf tree, is a rare medicinal species of flowering shrub with religious significance. It is a small crooked tree with drooping branches that grows 3–5 metres (10–16 ft) tall and flowers between February and May. It is native to Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and China.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bauhinia racemosa", 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 summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (952 mm of 1,248 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.5 °C against a yearly mean of 25.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

1,248 mm in the median year at the habitat, 952 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 335 mm, driest months (2 at 7 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 782 mm to 3,272 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,309 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,248 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 43 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.8 °C, the absolute minimum 7.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.8 °C to 22.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 34.1 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.8 °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: 50 to 68% 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 -110 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Bauhinia racemosa through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 34 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.1 °C; 1,248 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, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°43.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER7.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter020040060080010001200mm rainDLI 26–43RH 50–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 294 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 °C28 / 24–3130 / 27–3333 / 30–3534 / 31–3834 / 30–4031 / 27–3728 / 25–3328 / 25–3229 / 27–3329 / 27–3329 / 26–3128 / 25–30
Night °C16 / 11–2218 / 13–2321 / 17–2424 / 20–2625 / 21–2725 / 21–2824 / 20–2623 / 20–2523 / 20–2522 / 19–2419 / 16–2417 / 12–23
Rain mm7 / 1–307 / 1–3315 / 1–6122 / 2–14259 / 9–249165 / 56–723335 / 79–1009261 / 105–684191 / 100–367143 / 20–34435 / 9–2518 / 2–80
DLI33 / 29–3739 / 35–4042 / 40–4443 / 38–4743 / 33–4733 / 25–4026 / 22–3326 / 21–3431 / 28–3633 / 30–3531 / 28–3331 / 27–34
RH %53 / 47–6151 / 44–6150 / 40–6154 / 38–6459 / 41–6664 / 52–7267 / 58–7468 / 59–7465 / 58–7061 / 49–6955 / 46–6753 / 47–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 294 grid cells holding the 479 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 1380:5072 (20.975, 73.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.5 °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 294 distinct grid cells holding 479 of the 479 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1380:5072 (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 21.00_73.750, lapse-corrected -110 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 211 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam · introduced: Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Iraq, Pakistan, 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 marker11.602, 75.595 · in the densest population, 390 records (73% 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 531 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 479 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 336 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 193 km away. 5 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 52 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 10736779 (Piliostigma racemosum (Lam.) Bedd., 1863): Kew's file holds it as Piliostigma racemosum (Lam.) Benth. (synonym under Bauhinia racemosa Lam.); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
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 531 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 racemosa, photograph 1did not loadBauhinia racemosa, photograph 2did not loadBauhinia racemosa, photograph 3did not loadBauhinia racemosa, photograph 4did not loadBauhinia racemosa, photograph 5did not loadBauhinia racemosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Ramnarayan K, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Hemidesmus indicus Hemidesmus indicus Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, AparnaHelicteres isora Helicteres isora East Indian screwtree Photo: CC BY, Aadi KulkarniDendrophthoe falcata Dendrophthoe falcata Loranthaceae Photo: CC BY, P JeganathanWrightia tinctoria Wrightia tinctoria Pala indigo Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaAdina cordifolia Adina cordifolia Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Siddarth MachadoTerminalia anogeissiana Terminalia anogeissiana Indian Sumac Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya

Other Bauhinia 27 in the reference

Bauhinia aculeata Bauhinia aculeata Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Bauhinia acuminata Bauhinia acuminata Dwarf white bauhinia Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar ChimiralaBauhinia 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 all 28 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Bauhinia parviflora; Bauhinia spicata; Bauhinia tenuis; Bauhinia timorana; Bauhinia timorensis and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Lam.
Native to
China South-Central, Assam, Bangladesh +8
Wild records
531 in range · 336 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 answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 0 records of GBIF's key 10736779, Piliostigma racemosum (Lam.) Bedd., 1863 (Kew's file holds it as Piliostigma racemosum (Lam.) Benth. (synonym under Bauhinia racemosa Lam.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 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 21.00_73.750, lapse-corrected -110 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 27 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…