Stiff shrubs to 2 m tall, reseeder, colonial. Stems 1-3, greyish black, mostly arising from just above the base, rough; branches erect and spreading, stiff even when in flower. Seasonal shoots erect, densely canescent, becoming glabrous with age, broom-like, up to 40 cm long, ‘burst branching’ from last season's branch ends; leaves absent in mature plants, seasonal shoots covered in scales. Scales 2-3 mm long, 1.0-1.5 mm wide, green, persistent, becoming woody, subulate, tightly clasping and overlapping, densely white pubescent below but glabrous above, margins ciliate, densely minutely black gland-dotted when dry. Inflorescences borne in uppermost 3-4 axils of seasonal shoots, condensed, opening together, pseudo-capitate; buds hairy; pedicels below cupulum 2-3 mm long, stiff and erect, hairy; bracts 2 mm cucullate; pedicels above cupulum 2-3 mm long; cupulum shallowly bilobed overlapping the base of the calyx. Flowers 14-15 mm long, purple and mauve, veins not discoloured, maturing more or less simultaneously; bracts inconspicuous, replaced by a tuft or ring of hairs. Calyx lobes shorter than calyx tube; lobes subequal, with lower lobe 1 mm longer; lower lobe 4-6 mm long, 2.0-2.5 mm wide, cucullate, acute, broader than other four equal lobes; vexillar calyx lobes free above the tube; tube 3.0-4.0 mm long, covered in long appressed black hairs; calyx shorter than corolla; inner face of calyx lobes densely covered in black stubby hairs; calyx glands constant in size, same density all over, drying orange; accrescent in fruit. Standard petal 12-13 x 10-12 mm, suborbicular, purple fading to mauve at margins, veins not coloured but drying black; claw 3-4 mm long, elongated and narrow, two free vertical curved 2 mm long narrow white appendages present 2 mm above claw; nectar guide a M-shaped white area without purple flash; auricles poorly-developed; apex emarginate. Wing petals 11-13 x 4-5 mm, longer than keel, mauve, narrowly cultrate, upcurving; claw 4 mm long. Keel 9-13 x 3 mm, apex rounded; claw 6 mm long. Androecium 11 mm long. Pistil 11 mm long, ovary 1.5 mm long; style filiform, 7 mm to point of flexure, glabrous but with a few stalked club-shaped glands on upper margin, pedicellate, length of curvature 4.5 mm, penicillate. Fruits 4.0-6.0 x 2.0-2.7 mm, papery, strongly reticulate, black, narrowly oblong. Seeds 2.0-4.0 x 1.3-2.0 mm, chestnut brown to black; hilum sub-central, aril well-developed, white, 1 mm long.
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