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Leguminosae
Common names
Bauhinia or bohemia, Bauhinia carronii, B. cunninghamii and
B. hookeri (sometimes known as pegunny, particularly B. hookeri).
Characteristics
Tree, usually with short trunk and branches of irregular shape;
bark dark grey or almost black; dry, hard, coarsely flaky and somewhat
furrowed; leaves deciduous, consisting of two equal rounded halves folded
down the middle, usually with a notch between the two at the tip; flowers
white in B. hookeri, pink in the other species; pods hard, dry, 7.5 to
10 cm long and 4 to 5 cm wide, flat, containing hard, brown, discoid seeds.
Of these species, the first two are characteristic of the more westerly
areas in Queensland, Australia, B. carronii being the most abundant. B.
hookeri is common on drainage lines and banks of streams in some of the
softwood scrubs of the 625- to 750-mm rainfall belt and also in the basalt
country north of Hughenden, Australia. All grow on a fair range of soils.
Leaves are somewhat hard but are eaten readily by stock; pods, too, are
eaten. Bauhinia trees are leafless during late winter and spring and are
usually leafless during major droughts (Everist, 1969).
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