Habit an erect shrub up to 2 m tall, resprouter. Stems 1-3, bare with bursts of seasonal shoots in upper parts, with wide internodes; brown, covered in white storied lenticels; young seasonal shoots green, glabrous, glandular; flowering shoots produced seasonally on old stems, leafy along their entire length; plants also produce numerous sterile “water” shoots up to 1 m tall giving the plant an untidy restioid appearance. Leaves 3-foliolate at the base of each seasonal shoot, reducing to 1-foliolate thereafter, glabrous; leaf size variable, larger on water shoots from the rootstock (30-45 mm long, 30-40 mm wide); petiole 2-3 mm long; terminal leaflet of flowering shoots longest (20-40 mm long), basal pair (25-35 mm long), all 1.0-1.3 mm wide; glabrous, dark green; grooved, apex acuminate, base rounded; stipules 2-3 mm long, fused for half their length to the petiole, rigid, triangular, semi-patent, those on water shoots are longer, green and arching, rapidly senescent on flowering shoots. Inflorescences axillary along the length of seasonal shoots; flowers 1-3 per axil; peduncles absent or <1 mm long, terminated by a tri-toothed cupulum; cupulum lower tooth longest, acuminate, upper two teeth fused for half their length, yellowish, rapidly senescent, 1.0-1.2 mm long; pedicels 1-2 mm long Flowers 10-12 mm long, mauve to purple and white, borne 1-3 in leaf axils along seasonal flowering shoots. Calyx 5-6 mm long, 4 mm wide, pale green; tube 4 mm long, glabrous, ribbed; teeth triangular, equal, shorter than the tube, 2 mm long, carinal tooth cucullate at apex; glandular, margins ciliate with black hairs, inner face of teeth densely black-haired. Standard petal broadly elliptic to broadly ovate, 9-10 mm long, 8-10 mm wide; claw 2-3 mm long; mauve to purple, nectar “guide” situated above the strongly developed free appendages above the apex of the claw and comprised of a basal white area from which emerges a trifid purple flash that bleeds off into purple veins. Wing petals 9-11 mm long, 4 mm wide; claw 3 mm long; locked into keel indentation but not fused with it; longer than the keel; petal sculpturing present, upper basal, comprising 7-8 transcostal parallel lamellae. Keel 6 mm long, 3 mm wide; claw 5 mm long; apex dark purple. Androecium 9 mm long; tenth stamen free; sheath split adaxially, fenestrate; nectarial ring present, 0.5 mm high. Pistil 9 mm long; ovary 1.5 mm long, stipitate, glabrous but sparsely covered near distal end in curved stalked glands; ovules 1; style thickened at point of flexure, height of curvature 2 mm; stigma erect, penicillate. Fruits unknown. Seeds unknown.
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