Psoralea usitata C.H.Stirt.

Species

Angiosperms > Fabales > Fabaceae > Psoralea

Characteristics

Large shrubs, 2.5-3.0 m tall, resprouter or reseeder, forming dense clumps in seepages. Stems solitary to many, greenish grey to pale tan, woody throughout, terete, shallowly furrowed; branches arching, emerging in middle portions of plants. Seasonal shoots erect, smooth, glandular, with minute striations, bearing up to seven short side branches; leaves usually absent in mature plants, if present, trifoliolate, 13-17(20) x 4 mm, flat, covered in minute glands, lateral leaflets smaller. Scales 2.5-3.5 x 0.5-1.7 mm, senescent, appressed but spreading when dry, not tightly congested. Inflorescences axillary, pseudo-spicate, lax; pedicel below cupulum 2-4(5) mm long, stout and rigid; cupulum bilobed with one of the vexillar lobes strongly bilabiate, cleft to half the length of vexillar lobes and appearing trifid; cupulum glabrous, lobes equally developed, narrowly triangular; pedicel above cupulum 2-3 mm long, hairy. Flowers 9-14 mm long; purple and white; maturing sequentially; bracts reduced to tuft or ring of hairs. Calyx 5-6 mm long; tube 2.5-3.0 mm long, glabrescent, longer than the lobes; lobes subequal, the lower lobe slightly longer; lateral and vexillar calyx lobes acute, falcate, narrowly triangular; lower lobe 2.5-3.0 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, 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; ribs distinctly thickened; glands dense, drying reddish, constant in size and equally distributed across the lobes and tube. Standard petal 10-12 x 11-13 mm, sub-orbicular; claw 2-5 mm long, elongated and narrow; apex emarginate. Wing petals 11-16 x 4-6 mm, up-curving; auricles present; claw 3.5-5.0 mm long; fused to, but longer than keel. Keel 12 x 3-4 mm; claw 4-6 mm long. Androecium 11 mm long, upper end curved inwards, 10th stamen lightly attached, fenestrate. Pistil 9 mm long, ovary 2 mm long, style 7 mm long, swollen at point of flexure, length of curvature 3 mm. Fruits 3 x 3 mm, papery, reticulate. Seeds 3 mm long, 2.5-2.5 mm wide, brown; hilum subterminal, aril poorly-developed, white.
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Growth form shrub
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Sexuality hermaphrodite
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Mature height (meter) 2.5 - 3.0
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Cultivation

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Distribution

Psoralea usitata world distribution map, present in South Africa

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77149192-1
WFO ID wfo-0001343239
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Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Psoralea usitata