Tall shrub or small tree up to 5 m tall, reseeder, forming colonies. Stems erect, single, branching from halfway up or higher up the stem, rigid, branches striate, glabrous, woody, round, yellowish brown to brown becoming grey, with white stratified lenticels, bark rough and usually covered in various crustose lichens. Seasonal shoots sparsely pubescent, glabrescent, greyish green to purplish, striate. Leaves 7-9-foliolate, spreading, distributed along the seasonal branches, erect, petiolate, rachis and petiole; leaflets 20-50 x 1.5-2.5 mm linear to linear-lanceolate, semi-flat and broadly canaliculate with distinct mid-rib, apiculate at the apex, cuneate at the base, with sparse appressed silvery pubescence, terminal leaflet second longest, basal pair longest, three uppermost pinnately inserted; petioles 5-10 mm long, broadly channelled, shorter than terminal leaflet; rachis 15-20 mm long; stipules 2-2.5 x 2-1.5 mm persistent, shorter than petiole, fused, callused, twisted and recurved, becoming woody and persistent with age, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, borne in upper axils of seasonal shoots without leafy extension, pseudo-capitate, fasciculate, 1-5 flowers per axil, pedunculate, pedicellate; peduncles stout and rigid, 25-45 mm long, longer than the subtending leaf; cupulum bilobed, bristly pubescent with silvery hairs, 2 mm long; lobes equally developed, triangular; pedicels 1-3 mm long, can persist for more than a season. Flowers 13-14 mm long, mauve. Calyx 6-8 mm long, tube 3.5-4.5 x 4.5 mm with sparse glands on the surface, glands constant in size; lobes sub-equally developed, shorter than the calyx tube, oblong-ovate, sub-acute or rounded at the apex, lower lobe largest; finely silvery pubescent outside, black stubby hairs within, margins ciliate. Standard petal 10-12 x 8-9.5 mm, very broadly ovate, mauve but sometimes paler towards the margins, with a large white M-shaped nectar guide and a small purple flash in crotch; claw 3-5 mm long. Wing petals 9-10 x 3-4 mm, mauve, up-curving, auricles and sculpturing present, basal comprised of 2-3 rows of 10-14 transcostal lamellae; claw 3-4 mm long. Keel 8-9 x 3.5-4 mm, blade ridged for 3 mm from base, white, inner face of apex purple; claw 4 mm long. Androecium 10 mm long, tenth stamen free, scarcely fenestrate. Pistil 8 mm long, stipitate, ovary 1 mm long, glabrous, sparsely covered in club-shaped glands, style 6 mm long straight then upcurved, thickened at point of flexure, height of curvature 3 mm long. Fruits 5.0 x 2.5-3.0 mm, oblong, finely reticulate, papery. Seeds 4.0 x 2.5 mm, ellipsoid, hilum sub-central, dark brown.
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