Indigofera superba C.H.Stirt.

Erect, softly woody shrub up to 2 m tall; stem and older branches reddish brown and puckered with greyish lenticels, branching mostly in the upper parts, greyish-white appressed strigulose when young but glabrous when mature. Stipules free, adnate to the base of the petiole, up to 5 mm long, subulate-setaceous, pubescent on the outside, glabrous inside. Leaves regular, odd pinnate, petiolate. Leaflets 16-18 mm long, 11-13 mm wide, 9-11 in number, suborbiculate to wide obovate, base obtuse, apex recurved mucronate, scurfy, finely strigillose on both surfaces, two types of hairs, half-conduplicate. Petiole up to 2 mm long, petiolules shorter. Inflorescences axillary, racemose, densely many-flowered, pink, up to 12 cm long including a peduncle of 40-60 mm long, pubescent. Flowers 8-9 mm long, pink, each subtended by a 5-7 mm filiform, rapidly caducous bract, ebracteolate. Calyx tube 2 mm long, three times shorter than the calyx lobes; keel lobe 6.5 mm long, lateral lobes 6.0 mm long, vexillar lobes 4 mm long, tips flared, all linear, flattened, glabrous inside, villous outside. Standard 8-8.5 mm long, 4.2-4.7 mm wide, narrowly ovate, base narrowing into a flattened claw, auricles absent, apex acute, appendages absent. Wing petals 8 mm long, 2 mm wide, slightly auriculate, sculpturing basal and left central, of up to 10 thick lamellae. Keel blades 8 mm long, 2 mm wide, prominently pocketed, pocket 2 mm deep. Pistil 4.5 mm long, glabrous, 5-7-ovuled, sessile; style upcurved, height of curvature 1 mm; stigma capitate. Vexillar stamen free; anthers uniform, 1.5 mm long, strongly apiculate, dorsifixed, basal scales present and up to 0.5 mm long; staminal sheath 6 mm long. Fruit cylindrical (10)15-25 mm long, 3 mm wide, dehiscent, blackish brown, septa 2 mm wide, barrel-shaped, separating the seeds. Seeds 2.25 mm wide and long, yellowish-green with blotches of purple of various intensities. This mountain fynbos endemic flowers in late summer and early autumn. Mature fruits have been found in early summer.