Vines, perennial, woody, unarmed, glabrous throughout [pubescent]. Stems twining, with [rarely without] axillary tendrils. Leaves alternate, bifoliolate [unifoliolate]; stipules present, caducous [persistent]; petiolate, petiole with basal pulvinus and apical secondary and tertiary pulvini; leaflets 2, blade [2-lobate when unifoliolate], venation palmate, margins entire, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences [1 or 2–]15-flowered, axillary [terminal or subterminal], racemes [panicles or corymbs], usually appearing after leaves; bract 1, subpersistent or caducous; bracteoles 2. Flowers caesalpinioid; calyx actinomorphic in bud, splitting into 2[or 3–5] lobes [cup-shaped]; corolla white to pinkish, [purple, yellow, orange, or green]; fertile stamens 3, monadelphous [distinct]; anthers dorsifixed, versatile, dehiscing longitudinally, [apically or porate]; staminodes 7[or 8]; style filiform [stout]. Fruits legumes, stipitate, compressed, linear, elongate, [narrowly ellipsoid or subreniform], dehiscent [indehiscent], glabrous. Seeds [1–]5–10[–20], subglobose [oblong or reniform], dull; hilum crescentic, with funicular aril lobes. x = 14.

Distribution

Introduced; Florida, Asia (Malesia), introduced widely.

Discussion

Species 90–100 (1 in the flora).

Phanera was previously treated as part of Bauhinia (R. P. Wunderlin et al. 1987), which recently has been divided into nine genera (G. P. Lewis and F. Forest 2005; Wunderlin 2010). The single Phanera species treated here can readily be distinguished from the four species of 2. Bauhinia in the flora area on the basis of habit, as discussed under that genus.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Phanera yunnanensis