Crotalaria lachnophora A.Rich.

Perennial bushy herb or shrub, 1–3 m. tall, much branched above.. Branches slightly ribbed, densely pubescent or tomentose, with mostly slightly spreading brownish hairs.. Leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets oblanceolate-oblong, oblong-elliptic or obovate, up to 30–75 mm. long, 8–35 mm. wide, sparsely pubescent or glabrous above, appressed pubescent beneath; petiole 20–35 mm. long.. Stipules oblong-falcate, 9–25 mm. long, 4–8 mm. wide, caudate, very unequal-sided.. Racemes lax, up to 10–28 cm. long, few–many-flowered; bracts obovate, up to 8–12 mm. long, acuminate, caducous; bracteoles inserted on the pedicel, filiform to oblanceolate, 1–7 mm. long.. Calyx 11–15(–18) mm. long, spreading tomentose; upper and lateral lobes on either side usually coherent even in the mature flowers, narrowly triangular, ± twice as long as the tube.. Standard suborbicular, clear yellow, fading orange-red, glabrous outside; wings broadly oblong, longer than the keel; keel abruptly rounded in lower half, narrowed into the rather short blunt slightly incurved untwisted beak, (18–)21–24(–26) mm. long, lanate on the lateral surfaces towards the upper margin.. Pod subsessile, broadly cylindrical, 28–42 mm. long, ± 15 mm. across, long densely spreading tomentose, ± 16–18-seeded.. Seeds oblong-reniform, 4·5–5 mm. long, granulate, orange-yellow.

Wooded savannah, swamps and pasture. Miombo and related woodlands, grassland, sometimes beside lakes, streams and dambos at elevations from 750-1,650 metres.

The seeds are eaten in Congo. It contains alkaloids and may need treatment.

Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.