Robust resprouting shrub up to 1.5(2) m tall. Stems many, sub-erect to erect, multi-branched from near the base, rigid, rough, mostly bare except for leafy upper parts, branching at or near the base; young stems green to blackish and finely pubescent, older stems glabrous, grey with dull white storied lenticels giving a striped appearance; stipule scars prominent. Seasonal shoots rough, blackish, hairy. Leaves 5-7-foliolate, crowded at the ends of bare branches, erect, petiolate, with raised glands; leaflets 9-11 x 0.3-0.4 mm, linear lanceolate, glabrous, densely glandular, raised and prominent; terminal leaflet shortest or about the same length as the laterals, basal pair longest, apex of leaflets acute, three uppermost pinnately inserted; petioles 2-3 mm long; rachis 10 mm long; stipules 0.7-2 x 1-1.5 mm, poorly developed but persistent, shorter than the petiole, glabrous. Inflorescences axillary, borne in uppermost 5-9 axils of seasonal shoots, pseudocapitate, congested, 1(2) flowers per axil, pedunculate, pedicels absent; peduncles stout and rigid, 3-4 mm long; cupulum trilobed, glabrous, lobes poorly developed. Flowers 12-14 mm long, mauve. Calyx 5-7 mm long, tube 3-4 x 3.5 mm; lobes equally developed, shorter than the calyx tube, oblong-ovate, sub-acute or rounded at the apex, margins ciliate; glabrous, with dense glands, variable in size, equally distributed across the tube and lobes; ribs present, distinctly thickened. Standard petal 10 x 9 mm, sub-orbicular, pale to dark mauve with purplish veins and a small central violet nectar guide, auricles well-developed, apex emarginate; claw 2-3 mm long. Wing petals 10-14 x 4 mm, cultrate, mauve; auricles well developed, sculpturing present, upper basal and upper left central comprised of 7-9 transcostal lamellae; claw 3-4 mm long. Keel 11-12 x 3-4 mm; claw 5-7 mm long. Androecium 10 mm long, tenth stamen slightly attached, fenestrate. Pistil 11 mm long, ovary 2 mm long, glabrous but with a few small stalked glands; style 6 mm long, straight, then upcurved, swollen beyond point of flexure, height of curvature 3 mm long. Fruits 4-5 x 2.5-3.0 mm, oblong, coarsely reticulate, membranous, black. Seeds 2-4 x 2 mm, blackish grey.
Home