Tall densely branched shrubs to 2.5 m, resprouter, bluish-green, most parts covered in small crater-like glands; mature plants can be hemispherical. Stems many, green turning bluish-green to brown with age, coarsely fissured, older plants produce burst branching at the ends of previous season's seasonal shoots giving an untidy habit; seasonal shoots glaucous, glabrous, densely covered in small raised crateriform glands. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, yellowish-green, semi-conduplicate, semi-succulent, glabrous, crowded at the end of bare branches on older stems or distributed along short branches on young shoots, petiolate. Stipules triangular, short, straight, stiff, erect, fused near their base, glabrous, glandular, rapidly senescent, persistent, shorter than petiole. Leaflets linear-oblong, symmetrical, glabrous, bluish-green; apex acute, tip deflexed, terminal leaflets 20-30 x 1.4-3.0 mm, laterals (12)15-24 x 1.5-3.0 mm, petioles (7)10-11 mm long; rachis 2-5 mm long, small, terminal leaflet longest. Inflorescences axillary, borne in upper axils of seasonal shoots, 1(2) flowers per axil, pedunculate, pedicel 4-5 mm long, shorter than calyx tube; peduncles rigid, 26-35 mm long, longer than the subtending leaf; cupulum terminal, 3-fid, teeth equal, triangular, minute, warty, glabrous, 1.7-1.8 mm long. Flowers 8-11 mm long, white to pale mauve, held above the foliage. Calyx 5-8 mm long; ribbed, densely glandular, glands smaller on triangular teeth; lobes equally developed, shorter than the calyx tube, glabrous, carinal lobe slightly wider; ribs and tube sometimes flushed purple. Standard 7-8 x 10-11 mm, white or pale mauve fading towards margins, with a purple vertical flash tapering to the apex and some basal veins purplish, apex greenish on front and back. Wing petals 8-11 x 4-5 mm, white, tips sometimes pale lavender, longer than keel, blade flared outwards, sculpturing present. Keel 7-8 x 4 mm, white but apically suffused with dark violet-purple on inner apex. Pistil stipitate, ovary glabrous but sparsely covered in club-shaped glands, style glabrous, curved upwards, thickened at point of flexure. Fruits 1-seeded, papery, enclosed within calyx, surface reticulate. Seeds black.
Home