Bauhinia ungulataL.

WFO wfo-0000173948 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Bauhinia ungulata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. a Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-01-10 / obs. 113672392
Bauhinia ungulata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. b Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67995745
Bauhinia ungulata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. c Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 117455448
Bauhinia ungulata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. d Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 6291778
Bauhinia ungulata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. e Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67994546
Bauhinia ungulata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. f Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67995637
Bauhinia ungulata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. g Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67994507
Bauhinia ungulata, photographed by ldgc
fig. h ldgc, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 171496085

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 23 botanical countries

Regions where Bauhinia ungulata is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEl SalvadorGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Bauhinia ungulata, 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
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 63 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 13.4 °C 20.1 °C 24.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 28.2 °C 32.9 °C 34.9 °C
Annual rainfall 921 mm 1,475 mm 3,285 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 9 mm 38 mm 144 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 63 research-grade observations of Bauhinia ungulata that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 32 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.

  • Bauhinia angularis Harms ex Glaz.
  • Bauhinia angulata Vell.
  • Bauhinia angulicaulis Harms
  • Bauhinia benthamiana Taub.
  • Bauhinia cataholo Hoehne
  • Bauhinia cavanillei Millsp.
  • Bauhinia chapadensis Malme
  • Bauhinia cujabensis f. vestita Chodat & Hassl.
  • Bauhinia cujabensis var. ferruginea Chodat & Hassl.
  • Bauhinia cuyabensis (Bong.) Steud.
  • Bauhinia cuyabensis f. albiflora Kuntze
  • Bauhinia cuyabensis f. vestita Chodat & Hassl.
  • Bauhinia cuyabensis var. cuyabensis
  • Bauhinia cuyabensis var. ferruginea Chodat & Hassl.
  • Bauhinia cuyabensis var. olfersiana (Vogel) Kuntze
  • Bauhinia galpinii var. ungulata L.
  • Bauhinia hiemalis Malme
  • Bauhinia inermis Perr.
  • Bauhinia inermis (Cav.) Pers.
  • Bauhinia macrostachya (Benth.) Baker
  • Bauhinia macrostachya Benth.
  • Bauhinia macrostachya var. obtusifolia Ducke
  • Bauhinia macrostachya var. parvifolia Ducke
  • Bauhinia macrostachya var. tenuifolia Ducke

and 8 more.

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. 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.