Psoralea rigidula C.H.Stirt.

Species

Angiosperms > Fabales > Fabaceae > Psoralea

Characteristics

Multi-stemmed suffrutices up to 0.6 m tall, with pinnate leaves in juvenile phase, aphyllous in adult phase, resprout after fires from a large woody daucate rootstock and form dense clumps. Stems erect, numerous, branching from near woody base, shallowly furrowed; coppice shoots trifoliolate; leaves 10-15 mm long, 4-5 mm wide; lateral leaflets shorter, excentric, curved, covered on both surfaces with numerous small glands drying reddish; leaves falling off as shoots mature, leaving scale-like remnants. Seasonal shoots yellowish-green, emerging from base of plant, striate, finely gland-dotted. Scales 1.5 x 1.0 mm, but longer and more attenuated in seedlings, broadly obliquely ovate, glabrous, margins minutely ciliate, not tightly congested. Inflorescences borne in upper axils of seasonal shoots; flowers opening sequentially; pseudo-spicate; buds glabrous, with lower lobe attenuate and up-curled; pedicel below cupulum 3-4 mm long, 3-4 mm long above cupulum; stiff and erect; cupulum trilobed, glabrous, margins ciliate, lobes broadly triangular, densely gland-dotted and drying orange. Flowers 9-12 mm long, purplish violet and white, bracts reduced to tuft or ring of hairs. Calyx 6.0-6.5 mm long; lobes subequal, lower lobe slightly longer; lateral and vexillar calyx lobes acute, straight, triangular; lower lobe 4-5 x 2-3 mm, acute, broader than the other four lobes; vexillar calyx lobes fused for up to one third of their length above the tube; calyx shorter than corolla; inner face of calyx lobes finely covered in white hairs with no stubby black hairs; ribs distinctly thickened; glands dense, constant in size, more dense on the tube than the lobes. Standard petal 8-11 x 9-10 mm, sub-orbicular, purplish violet fading to mauve at edges with purple veins; nectar guides whitish with a small central dark purple flash; auricles absent; claw 4-6 mm long; apex emarginate. Wing petals 10-13 x 4-5 mm, white, up-curving, fused to, but longer than keel, claw 3-5 mm long. Keel 10-11 x 3-4 mm, claw 4-6 mm long. Androecium 10 mm long, scarcely fenestrate. Pistil 8 mm long, stipitate; ovary 1 mm long, glabrous, sparsely covered in club-shaped glands; style glabrous, curved at 4 mm, thickened at point of flexure. Fruits immature, papery, reticulate. Seeds 3.5 x 1.5 mm, reinform; hilum central.
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Sexuality hermaphrodite
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Mature height (meter) 0.6
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Nitrogen fixer rhizobia
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Soil texture 5-6
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Cultivation

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Distribution

Psoralea rigidula world distribution map, present in South Africa

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77149186-1
WFO ID wfo-0001420991
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Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Psoralea rigidula