Perennial with a woody rootstock; stems prostrate or more often ascending, like the leaf-rhachides sparsely or less often densely appressed pubescent.. Leaves (l–)3–5(–9)-foliolate, the petiole up to 4 or even 8 cm. long, usually longer than the rest of the rhachis; stipules narrowly triangular, up to 1 cm. long, often blackish; leaflets linear or narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate, up to 12 cm. long, usually not above 5 mm. wide but up to 10 mm. in Zambia and Tanganyika, ending in a stout blackish often recurved mucro, glabrous above, appressed pubescent beneath, the hairs not sufficiently dense to hide the surface; lateral nerves very numerous.. Flowers in terminal pseudoracemes; bracts linear, up to 7 mm. long; pedicels 3–5 mm.. Calyx brownish pubescent; teeth triangular, about as long as the tube or with acuminate tips and a little longer.. Corolla pink or purple; standard 12–18 mm. long; keel glabrous.. Upper filament lightly attached, callous and bent 1 mm. above the base; filament-sheath 10–12 mm., free parts 2–4 mm., anthers 1 mm. long.. Style bent sharply upwards near the base, then straight, linear, pubescent, 4–5 mm. long.. Pod ascending, slightly upcurved, 5–6 cm. long, 4–5 mm. wide, stiffly and shortly fulvous or white spreading pubescent; style-base straight.. Seeds 11–14, mottled, longitudinal, oblong-ellipsoid, ± 3 × 2 × 1.2 mm.; hilum two-fifths along one side, the aril small, white, annular.
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