Bauhinia variegata (Mountain ebony): Classification, History, Botanical Description, Chemical Constituents, and Health Benefits of B. variegata

The Bauhinia variegata is a small to medium-sized tree with a large crown and a short bole. The tree had a 50 cm diameter and a maximum height of 15 m. In comparison, trees are substantially smaller in dry forests. The bark is light brown grey in hue, soft to slightly fissured, and scaly. Bark’s inside is pinkish in hue, bitter, and fibrous. The twigs have a pleasing brownish grey color and are light green, zigzag when young, slender, angled, and to some extent hairy. The tree’s leaves have small, 1-2 mm stipules and an early caduceus. The petiole measures 3-4 cm and is puberulous to glabrous, but the lamina measures 6-16 cm in diameter and is often oval to spherical and much wider than elongated. The lobe tips are extensively rounded. Typically, the upper surface is glabrous, and the lower is glaucous, yet once fully mature, the lower surface turns glabrous. Racemes with no branches at the twig ends make up the flower clusters. Fewer blooms contain hypanthium, which is a stalk-like structure with a narrow, green basal tube and short stalks. A bright green bud with five-pointed angles and a hair-covered calyx that breaks apart on one side while the other two sides remain attached. The flower features five petals, which are somewhat asymmetrical, smaller at the base, and edged with curves. The flower also has five exceedingly thin, curled stamens, a stigma that resembles a dot, a curved pistil, and a single, narrow, green ovary (Patil et al. 2012). Each stiff, long, flat, band-shaped, diagonally striate, dehiscent pod bears 10–15 seeds. The seeds are nearly spherical through the coriaceous testa, flat, and brown (Dey and Das 1988; Prakash et al. 1978)

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