Mountain-ebony

Bauhinia variegata, the mountain ebony, orchid tree or kachnar, is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree of the family Fabaceae, native to South and Southeast Asia and widely cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics. It reaches about 5 to 12 metres in height with a spreading crown and grey to brownish bark. The distinctive leaves are broad, rounded and deeply notched (bilobed) at the apex, resembling a camel's footprint or a butterfly. In the dry season, often before the leaves are fully out, it bears showy, fragrant, orchid-like flowers about 8 to 12 centimetres across, with five obovate petals coloured pink, mauve, purple or white, the uppermost petal usually marked with darker veins; the flowers have a few fertile stamens. The fruit is a long, flat, woody, dehiscent legume pod 15 to 30 centimetres long containing several flattened seeds. It grows in dry forest, hill slopes and disturbed ground and is planted as an ornamental and street tree.