Laminated Specimen - Leaf

Real Pink Butterfly - Bauhinia purpurea specimen laminated in clear plastic sheet. The specimen is clear, transparent and indestructible. Safe, authentic and completely unbreakable product put the leaf right at your fingertips! Anyone can safely explore the leaf from both sides.

Size of the lamination sheet is 7.5x7.5 cm (3x3 inch).

This is a handmade real animal specimen craft. Each one will be a bit different (specimen size, color and posture) even in the same production batch.
The pictures in the listing are just for reference as we are selling multiple pieces with same pictures.

It is an ideal learning aid for students and kids and also a very good collectible item for every body.

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Pink Butterfly - Bauhinia purpurea

A native species also found in S. China and S.E.Asia. The tree is of medium size with alternate large heart shaped leaves with 2 lobes and veins (9-11) radiating from the base of the leaf. The margin is entire and the surfaces smooth and hairless. Size ranges from 8 - 15 cm in diameter, petiole to 4cm long.

Flowering, from October to December. Flowers pink to nearly white, corolla of 5 narrow petals , stamens 3 or 4. Ovary superior.

Fruit, dark pod to 30cm long, 2cm wide containing 12 to 16 seeds 15mm in diameter 1 - 2mm thick. Seed forms very rapidly and trees in flower may already show numerous green pods. While most pods will open in the drier winter weather some may persist through to the next flowering season.

Common name(s): [more details]

Habit:  tree

Description:  "Small tree to 4 m tall; petioles 2.5-3.5 cm long; leaf blades 4.5-11 cm long, 4.5-10 cm wide; inflorescence paniculate; flowers numerous, the buds clavate, ca 2 cm long prior to anthesis; petals very slender, the banner purple-striate, ca 7 mm wide, fertile stamens 3, the anthers ca 6 mm long, versatile"  (Welsh, 1998; p. 139).

 "A shrub or small tree 5-7 m high, commonly cultivated near sea level, or possibly sparingly naturalized along roadsides.  Its fragrant flowers, with three fertile stamens, have pale purple petals paler at base; its fruits may be as large as 30 x 2.5 cm"  (Smith, 1985; p. 121).

"A medium-sized...tree.  Leaves shallow-cordate and 9- or 11-nerved at base, the lobes rounded or obtuse to subacute.  Inflorescence a few-flowered corymb.  Flowers purple or at least purple-marked; calyx split into 2 valves with 5 teeth; petals oblanceolate, long-clawed; fertile stamens 3 or 4.  Pods 15-30 cm long, up to 2.5 cm wide, 12- 15-seeded"  (Walker, 1976; p. 543).

Key to some Bauhinia species:

Fertile stamen 1; staminodes 5, small; petals long-clawed, 4-5.5 x 2-3 cm, white to pink, with red blotches or dots, the uppermost one splotched with deeper red, yellow or yellow-margined; leaf blades ovate-oblong, 7-20 cm long and broad, cordate to rounded at base, pubescent beneath when young, lobed about 1/5-1/2 their length, the lobes obtuse to subacuminate. B. monandra.

Fertile stamens 3-10.

Petals crimson to deep red, yellow-dotted without, 2.5-4 cm long, the claw nearly as long as the lamina; fertile stamens 3; leaf blades crescent-shaped, 2-5 cm long and broad, cordate to rounded at base, shallowly lobed to about 1/3 their length, the lobes rounded. B. galpinii.

Petals white or yellow to purple, not clawed or with a claw much shorter than the lamina.

Fertile stamens 10; corolla campanulate, the petals yellow, 1-3 of them sometimes purple-blotched within, 2.5-5.5 cm long, overlapping at margins; leaf blades variable but subcircular, up to 10 x 11 cm long and broad, sometimes pilose beneath, truncate to subcordate at base, usually lobed to about 1/3 their length, the lobes rounded. B. tomentosa.

Fertile stamens 3 or 5.

Flower buds 4- or 5-angled or -winged; petals pale purple, shading to pinkish proximally, oblanceolate, 3-6 cm long, not more than 2 cm broad; fertile stamens 3; staminodes 7; leaf blades elliptic to suborbicular, 6-19 cm long and broad, rounded to cordate at base, lobed 1/2-1/4 their length, the lobes rounded to acute. B. purpurea.

Flower buds not angled or winged; petals pale purple or rose or white or yellow, obovate 4-6 cm long, 2-3 cm broad, the uppermost one broader; fertile stamens 5; staminodes 5, about half as long as stamens; leaf blades broadly ovate to suborbicular, 5-14 cm long and broad, cordate to truncate at base, lobed about 1/3 their length or less, the lobes rounded. B. variegata.

From: Smith, A. C. 1985. Flora Vitiensis nova: A new flora of Fiji. Lawai, Kauai, Hawai‘i. National Tropical Botanical Garden. Vol. 3, p 119.

Habitat/ecology:  Occurs at lower elevations in its native habitat.  In Fiji, "commonly cultivated near sea level, or possibly sparingly naturalized along roadsides" (Smith, 1985; p. 121). In New Caledonia, "cultivé, et assez commun en fourrés secondaires sur la côte Ouest" (MacKee, 1994; p. 72).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  "Southeastern Asia, now widely cultivated throughout the tropics"