Description from
Flora of China
Bauhinia anguina Roxburgh; B. anguina var. horsfieldii Watt ex Prain; B. horsfieldii (Miquel) J. F. Macbride; B. japonica Maximowicz var. subrhombicarpa (Merrill) Hiroe; B. scandens var. horsfieldii (Watt ex Prain) K. Larsen & S. S. Larsen; B. subrhombicarpa Merrill; Lasiobema anguina (Roxburgh) Korthals ex Miquel; L. horsfieldii Miquel; L. scandens (Linnaeus) de Wit; L. scandens var. horsfieldii (Watt ex Prain) de Wit.
Lianas, large, woody. Branches cylindric when young, applanate when old, forming "monkey ladders," puberulent, later glabrous; tendrils in pairs, puberulent. Stipules caducous; petiole 2-4 cm, slender; leaf blade ovate to broadly ovate, 5-9 × 4-8 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, primary veins usually 7-9, base shallowly cordate to truncate, entire on flowering branches, apex bifid to more than 1/2 in sterile or juvenile branches, lobes with obtuse or acuminate apices. Inflorescence an elongated raceme, 10-15 cm, many flowered, or several joined in a panicle 15-25 cm, terminal, puberulent; bracts and bracteoles linear. Pedicel 3-4 mm, slender. Flower buds ovoid, 1.8-2 mm in diam., apex open. Calyx lobes 5, triangular, outside pubescent. Petals white, subequal, obovate to oblanceolate, ca. 3 mm, shortly clawed. Fertile stamens 3; filaments glabrous. Staminodes 2. Floral disk fleshy, swollen. Ovary shortly stalked, oblique, glabrous; style stout; stigma small. Legume rhombic to oblong, 1.8-3 × 1-1.6 cm, indehiscent or tardily dehiscent; valves thin, reticulate veined. Seeds 1 or 2(-4), ellipsoid to obovoid-orbicular, ca. 8 mm in diam. Fl. Oct, fr. Dec.
Disturbed forests in valleys, among shrubs in coastal habitats. Hainan [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].