Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Orchid Tree

Hindi Name : कचनार | Scientific Name : Bauhinia variegata
Family : Caesalpiniaceae
Uses : The leaves, flowers and flower buds are eaten as vegetables. Leaves make good fodder and are greedily eaten by sheep, goats and cattle. The average annual fodder yield per tree is 15-20 kg of dry matter. One of the main uses of B. variegata is as fuel; its calorific value is 4800 kcal/kg. The bark yields a suitable fibre. The wood is brown and moderately hard and used for agricultural implements. The tree yields a gum. The bark produces tannins, used in various shades of brown. The seeds are made up of 20% endocarp and 80% kernel, and yield a pale yellow, fatty oil on extraction. The bark decoction is used for diarrhoea control, as an astringent alternative and for treating scrofula, skin diseases and ulcers. The showy fragrant, pink, purple or white flowers make the tree attractive for an ornamental and for avenue plantings.
Native: South East Asia
General Description:

It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree with a short bole and spreading crown, attaining a height of up to 15m and diameter of 50cm. In dry forests, the size is much smaller. The bark is light brownish grey, smooth to slightly fissured and scaly. Inner bark is pinkish, fibrous and bitter. The twigs are slender, zigzag; when young, light green, slightly hairy, and angled, becoming brownish grey. Leaves have minute stipules 1-2mm, early caducous; petiole puberulous to glabrous, 3-4cm; lamina broadly ovate to circular, often broader than long, 6-16cm diameter; 11-13 nerved; tips of lobes broadly rounded, base cordate; upper surface glabrous, lower glaucous but glabrous when fully grown. Flower clusters (racemes) are unbranched at ends of twigs. The few flowers have short, stout stalks and a stalk-like, green, narrow basal tube (hypanthium). The light green, fairly hairy calyx forms a pointed 5-angled bud and splits open on 1 side, remaining attached; petals 5, slightly unequal, wavy margined and narrowed to the base; 5 curved stamens; very slender, stalked, curved pistil, with narrow, green, 1-celled ovary, style and dotlike stigma. Pods dehiscent, strap-shaped, obliquely striate, 20-30 by 2-25cm; long, hard, flat with 10-15 seeds in each; seeds brown, flat, nearly circular with coriaceus testa.