Aspalathus abbottii C.H.Stirt. & Muasya

Species

Angiosperms > Fabales > Fabaceae > Aspalathus

Characteristics

Decumbent to erect, spreading shrub to 120 cm tall, branching near base. Branches brittle, divaricate, profuse, white-villous when young, glabrescent, bark light brown to tan, with blackish lattice of peeled bark when old. Leaves digitately trifoliolate, sessile, clustered in tufts of 12-33 linear leaflets along shoots; leaflets 3-4(-5) x 0.4-0.5 mm, soft-textured, spreading, bright green when young but grey when old, densely villous. Flowers solitary (rarely 2) on short lateral shoots, longer than subtending leaves, 10-11 mm long, sparse on plant. Bracts simple, linear, straight, appressed, 3-4(-5) x 0.15 mm, glabrous on outside or with few apical hairs. Bracteoles simple, smaller than bracts, 1.7-2.0 x 0.15 mm, incurving, appressed, glabrous outside but densely hairy on inner face. Calyx 5-6 mm long, tube longer than teeth; teeth 2.0-2.5 mm long, equal, spreading, subulate, acute, thickened, dark green with purplish tips, sinuses densely white ciliate; tube pinkish, densely pubescent both inside and outside, Standard bright yellow with purplish discolouration on back and darker along midrib, 8 x 8 mm, orbicular, retuse, densely tomentose on back; claw 3 mm long, deeply channelled, villous in cleft. Wing petals bright yellow, 7-8 x 2.0-2.5 mm, cultrate, widest in middle, tip narrowing, upper margin incurved and flattened forming platform; sculpturing upper basal and upper central comprised of 3-4 rows of intercostal and transcostal lunae, glabrous. Keel petals pale yellow with reddish colouring along suture near apex, 8-10 x 3 mm, longer than wing petals, obtuse, with straight upper margin, basally with distinct puckering, laterally with large bulge, glabrous to very sparsely hairy along midline. Androecium 10 mm long, stamens united for basal two-thirds into a sheath with upper slit on either side of median filament, anthers 5 short and dorsifixed, 4 long and basifixed, and one intermediate. Pistil 8-9 mm long, densely sericeous on ovary and along upper margin of style almost to the apex, stipe glabrous, stigma minute, forward facing, ovules 2. Pods dehiscent, obliquely ovate, tomentose when young, older pods glabrescent, blackish, reticulate (pods dehisced, unable to measure).
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Growth form shrub
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Sexuality hermaphrodite
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Mature height (meter) 1.2
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Nitrogen fixer rhizobia
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Soil texture 5-8
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Cultivation

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Distribution

Aspalathus abbottii world distribution map, present in South Africa

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77112520-1
WFO ID wfo-0000748418
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Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Aspalathus abbottii