Cow's-foot

Bauhinia forficata Link (Fabaceae, subfamily Cercidoideae) is a small unarmed or sparsely spinose tree 5-9 m tall, native to subtropical and tropical South America, especially southern and southeastern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina, where it grows in semideciduous forest, gallery forest and disturbed roadsides. The bark is grey and lightly fissured. Leaves are alternate, simple and conspicuously bilobed in a cow's-hoof shape 6-12 cm long, with 9-11 palmate veins arising from the base, giving rise to the vernacular names pata-de-vaca and cow's-foot. Flowers are solitary or in few-flowered racemes, large and showy, with five white narrowly clawed petals about 7-10 cm long and ten free stamens of unequal length, opening at dusk and pollinated by hawkmoths and bats. The fruit is a flat, oblong, dehiscent legume 12-20 cm long containing several flattened brown seeds. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental street tree.