Malabar Bauhinia is a small or moderate sized deciduous tree. Bark is rough brown, peeling in linear flakes, fibrous, red inside. Leaves are broader than long, 1.5-4 inches long, 2-5 inches broad, divided through 1/3 of the length, 7-9 nerved, slightly heart-shaped at base, rigidly leathery, glaucous and smooth beneath. Flowers are borne in stalkless racemes in leaf axils, 1.5-2 inches long, often 2-3 together. Flowers are 1/2 inch long, dull-white, often uni-sexual, on very slender stalks, which are 1 in. long. Male and female flowers are usually on different stems. Sepal cup has 5 equal triangular teeth. Petals are spade-shaped, equal. Pod is 7-12 inches long, 2-2.5 cm broad, on a stalk 1 in. long, flat flexible, many-seeded, more or less straight reticulate veins, which starting diagonally from both sutures meet in the middle. Seeds are 20-30.