Bauhinia petersiana Bolle

Shrub or tree 1-10 m high, shrubs usually erect but sometimes scrambling or scandent, rarely a suffrutex up to 0.4 m high; young branchlets ± densely greyish or brown-pubescent or-puberulous and with many small orange glands or scales, some branchlets often coiled apically and tendril-like. Leaves: petiole 0.4-2 cm long; blade often wider than long, (1)2-7(8) cm long, (1.8)2-10 cm wide, bilobed apically to about one-third to two-thirds of the way down, appressed-puberulous on lower surface or with spreading or ascending but non-appressed hairs; lobes elliptic to ovate or rounded. Stipules 3-5 mm long, 1-2 mm wide. Inflorescence 1-10-flowered, axillary, leaf-opposed or terminal and often crowded. Flower-buds: upper part (i.e. sepals) linear to linear-lanceolate in outline, 1.5-5 cm long before anthesis; hypanthium (1.5)2-5.5(6.5) cm long, finely longitudinally sulcate. Petals white throughout or sometimes the midrib pinkish basally, narrowly elliptic to ovate, 2.2-8.4 cm long, 0.6-2.2(4.2) cm wide, with very crisped margins, glabrous above, the midrib pubescent outside and with many small orange glands or scales. Stamens: usually 5 fertile, occasionally 4 or 6 fertile, three longer, (3)4.5-6 cm long, the other shorter two 3-5 cm long; filaments white, pink or red throughout, or sometimes pinkish basally and white above; staminodes 4 or 5. Style 2-4 cm long, pubescent and with glands or scales; stigma 2-3 mm in diameter, abruptly enlarged from the style. Pod linear-oblong to oblanceolate-oblong, 6-24 cm long, (1.3)1.7-4.7 cm wide, woody, dehiscent, puberulous but often becoming glabrescent with age. Seeds deep chestnut-brown to blackish, irregularly oblong to obovate or sub-circular, 1-1.6 cm long, 0.7-1.8 cm wide.

A tropical plant. It grows in woodland and wooded grassland at medium and low altitudes. It is often on termite mounds. It grows from 120-1800 m altitude. It is more common in the lowlands. It is damaged by drought or frost. It needs well-drained soil. In Zimbabwe it grows in areas with a rainfall between 600-750 mm per year. It suits hardiness zones 10-12.

The ground seeds are sometimes used as a coffee substitute. The seeds are eaten green and ripe. Ripe seeds are roasted and peeled and pounded into a gritty meal. The nectar of the flowers is eaten The root is eaten raw and also baked and pounded.

Plants can be grown from seeds. The seeds usually grow quickly. The roots are only shallow.