General Information

COMMON NAMES: Pink Orchid-tree, Pink Butterfly Tree, St. Thomas Tree, Jeruselum Date, Pink Bauhinia; German Bauhinien, Orchideenbäume; French Orchidée du Pauvre TRADITIONAL NAMES: Pine (RR MG), Pīpī (AT), Pī (MK MT), ‘Īpena (AK) GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Madagascar (not Burma or S.America) COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Recent, Naturalised; Land, lowlands - inland valleys SIGNIFICANCE LIST: Ornamental flowers, Wood, Medicine, Agriculture; Weed - moderate KEY FEATURES: Small spreading tree to 6m. Leaves alternate, round to 20cmØ, tip deeply notched; close at night. Flowers orchid-like, 8cmØ, petals marked pink to red. Pod woody to 30x2cm; seeds flat and black. SIMILAR SPECIES: None.

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea: Present
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
+++	++	+++	++	++	+++	-	-	-

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
-	-	-	-	-	-

Bauhinia monandra Kurz.
TAXONOMY: PLANTAE; ANTHOPHYTA (=Angiospermae); MAGNOLIOPSIDA (=Dicotyledones); ROSIDAE; Fabales (Legumes); CAESALPINIACEAE

SIGNIFICANCE NOTES -
POSITIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Ornamental flowers, Wood, Medicine, Agriculture. Comments: MATERIAL: The wood is reportedly used for ax handles, posts, and as a supporting structure for Vanilla orchid vines to grow on (Whistler 1990). . Timber is favoured by borer, dense white wood useful for some purposes where it is not exposed to the elements. MEDICINE: Leaves for medicine on Rarotonga (Wilder 1931). Juice from crushed green leaves applied to stonefish stings. Rapid pain reduction, patient will sleep for 1-2 hours (RR, Pa Teuruaa, 1999).
NEGATIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Weed - moderate

IDENTIFICATION: Spreading deciduous tree to 6m. LEAVES along the branches; alternate; ~round, to 18cm; tip deeply notched (~50%); fold at night. FLOWERS among the leaves; orchid-like; petals pale, yellow to pink, flecked red-pink; 4 petals identical, lightly flecked, 5th (top) heavily flecked; one stamen. FRUIT flat-pod, to 30cm; woody, drying brown. SEEDS hard, black, round and flat, to 10x8x3mm

GENERAL NOTE: The famous naturalist Carl Linnaeus named the genus for two brothers, John & Caspar Bauhin, both botanists in the 1500s. The equally lobed leaves (dissected by a deep notch) apparantly made Linneaus think of two brothers. Origin often given as Burma, and sometimes as tropical South America, but Kew Gardens now lists it as from Madagascar.

Vouchers:
None Recorded.

References:
p.420 Neal - In Gardens of Hawaii
p.141 Hortus 3rd
p.130 Royal Hort. Soc. Index of Garden Plants
p.541 Tropica
p.3/120 A.C.Smith - Flora Vitiensis Nova
p.55 Wilder - Flora of Rarotonga
p.390d Whistler - Ethnobotany of the Cook Islands

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM03a, zD02

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