Tephrosia villosa (L.) Pers.

Annual or briefly perennial bushy herb 0.3–1.3 m. tall; stems tomentose.. Leaf-rhachis up to 10 cm. long, including a petiole of up to 10 mm., prolonged up to 7 mm. beyond the lateral leaflets; stipules narrowly triangular, up to 8 mm. long; leaflets 11–15, cuneate-oblong or elliptic, up to 35 × 12 mm., densely appressed villous beneath, more sparsely so above; main nerves about 9 on each side.. Flowers purple in moderately dense terminal pseudoracemes and often also in upper leaf-axils; bracts narrowly triangular; pedicels densely tomentose, 2–4 mm. long.. Calyx densely tomentose, the hairs 1 mm. or more long; tube up to ± 2 mm. long; lobes long-acuminate, the lowest up to 8 mm. or more long, upper pair up to ± 7 mm. long, united for up to ± 2 mm.. Standard densely fulvous tomentose outside, up to 11–15 mm. long, including a claw of ± 2 mm., up to 9–10 mm. wide; keel glabrous.. Upper filament lightly attached, widened but not callous a little above the base; filament-sheath up to ± 6 mm., free parts up to 2–2.5 mm., anthers 0.5 mm. long.. Style glabrous, tapering, twisted, bent sharply upward at base, penicillate, up to 3–5 mm. long.. Pod strongly curved usually becoming deflexed so that the base is often parallel with the stem, bent sharply up near the tip, up to 5.4 cm. long and up to 5–6 mm. wide, densely silvery or fulvous tomentose, the hairs often up to 2 mm. long.. Seeds 6–12, muricate, longitudinal, oblong, ±4 × 2.5 mm., distance between their centres under 5 mm.; hilum central, aril small and strap-shaped or none.

Open fields and floodplains, often on sandy soils. Acacia-Commiphora bushland and woodland, shrubland, disturbed ground and on shallow sandy soils; at elevations up to 1,500 metres.

Can be grown by seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.