Wow, I'm impressed, both mysteries solved so quickly, a great thank you to both of you. The description of Bauhinia kockiana is definitely fitting for the climber I saw. I did see some seed pods which told me it was probably in the family Fabaceae, but since there are around 720 genera and nearly 20.000 species to choose from in this family, I didn't have a chance without help. The climber was stunning, but I see that is is definitely not well-suited for the mediterranean climate, it needs lots of water, heat and high humidity, just like it was where I saw it.
Most of the labels in the botanical garden in Peradeniya seemed to be quite old and many of the names were not up-to date. It could very well be that this climber never had been labelled, like several of the other trees and bushes we saw, either because of lack of capacity or because they were not sure of the identification, as you wrote. There were quite a few people working on the maintenance there, but maybe the scientific staff is too small to be able to keep up with all the acquisitions.