Lotononis caerulescens (E.Mey.) B.-e.van Wyk

Woody, much-branched shrub; procumbent, 0.2-0.5 m high and up to 1 m wide or erect, up to 1 m high. Branches densely leafy, canescent, glabrescent with age. Leaves exstipulate, digitately trifoliolate, densely canescent. Petiole (1-)2-3(-4) mm long, usually much shorter than the leaflets, on a prominent swollen leaf base. Leaflets (1-)2-5(-7) mm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, narrowly linear, conduplicate; apex acute, often slightly recurved. Inflorescence a terminal or leaf-opposed congested raceme, 1-3(-6)-flowered; peduncle short or absent, rarely up to 5 mm long. Flowers 7-10(-12) mm long, bright blue; pedicel 1-4 mm long; bracteoles absent or vestigial, less than 0.1 mm long when present. Calyx 3-5 mm long, densely sericeous; lobes subequal, very short or up to 1.5 mm long, broadly to narrowly triangular, the upper and lateral lobes on either side occasionally fused slightly higher up in pairs. Standard up to 12 mm long; claw 2.5-4 mm long, with two callosities usually present near its apex; blade 5-7 mm long, 5-10 mm wide; broadly ovate, depressed ovate to rounded; glabrous, or with a line of hairs dorsally along the middle. Wing petals up to 10 mm long; claw shorter than the blade, 2.5-4 mm long; blade 4-6 mm long, up to 4 mm wide, broadly oblong, obtuse or somewhat pointed, auricled; sculpturing upper basal and upper central, lunate to lunate-lamellate, in 4-7 rows of 10-20 irregular reclined mostly intercostal lunae. Keel petals up to 11 mm long, as long or longer than the wing petals; claw up to 4 mm long; blade up to 7 mm long and 4 mm wide, broadly semicircular, obtuse, auricled and pocketed near the base. Androecium as long as the keel, in a sheath open on the upper side; anthers dimorphic. Pistil 7-12 mm long, subsessile; ovary 4-6 mm long, linear, nearly terete, densely sericeous; style merging gradually with ovary, curved gently to sharply upwards; stigma small, terminal; ovules ca. 15-25, funicles as long as or slightly longer than the ovules. Fruit 11-15 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, 4-6-seeded, linear, triangular-terete in transverse section, laterally inflated along the lower suture, densely pubescent, glabrescent with age, with distinct irregular warty protuberances along the upper suture; lower suture somewhat sunken before dehiscence. Seed up to 3.5 mm long and 2 mm wide, broadly obovate to oblong in lateral view, radicular lobe prominent; testa smooth, greenish-yellow with irregular dark purple-brown marks.