Bauhinia tomentosaL.

St. Thomas tree

WFO wfo-0000213258 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Bauhinia tomentosa, photographed by Raja bandi
fig. a Raja bandi, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-07-24 / obs. 145865162
Bauhinia tomentosa, photographed by Raja bandi
fig. b Raja bandi, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145866148
Bauhinia tomentosa, photographed by Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan
fig. c Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 125144340
Bauhinia tomentosa, photographed by Karthik Thrikkadeeri
fig. d Karthik Thrikkadeeri, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155427582
Bauhinia tomentosa, photographed by Alec McClay
fig. e Alec McClay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152996700
Bauhinia tomentosa, photographed by Dave Richardson
fig. f Dave Richardson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190104568
Bauhinia tomentosa, photographed by Presha Soogrim
fig. g Presha Soogrim, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175620811
Bauhinia tomentosa, photographed by Presha Soogrim
fig. h Presha Soogrim, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 126070762

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 17 botanical countries

Regions where Bauhinia tomentosa is native: Angola, Burundi, Cape Provinces, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Yemen AngolaBurundiCape ProvincesDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaZambiaZimbabweYemen
Native distribution of Bauhinia tomentosa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Burundi BUR
Cape Provinces CPP
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Yemen YEM ASIA-TEMPERATE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 15 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Alvesia bauhinioides Welw.
  • Alvesia tomentosa (L.) Britton & Rose
  • Bauhinia binata Náves ex Fern.-Vill.
  • Bauhinia inermis Forssk.
  • Bauhinia mucara Bolle
  • Bauhinia pubescens DC.
  • Bauhinia speciosa Roxb. ex Wall.
  • Bauhinia tomentosa f. concolor Backer ex de Wit
  • Bauhinia tomentosa var. candida Voigt
  • Bauhinia tomentosa var. glabrata Hook.f.
  • Bauhinia volkensii Taub.
  • Bauhinia wituensis Harms
  • Cansenia tomentosa (L.) Raf.
  • Pauletia tomentosa (L.) A.Schmitz
  • Phyllolobium zanzibarense Bojer ex G.Don

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.