Aeschynomene katangensis De Wild.

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation

Not Threatened

Ecology

Africa: Zambezian woodland

Morphology General Habit

Perennial, Not climbing, Herb/Shrub

Leguminosae, B. Verdcourt. Flora Zambesiaca 3:6. 2000

Morphology General Habit

Subshrub with several stems 9–80 cm tall from a woody rhizome-like rootstock.

Morphology Stem

Stems unbranched or sparsely branched, erect, the flowering ones often almost leafless, all pubescent with tubercular-based hairs or glabrescent when young, later glabrous and with a peeling bark.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves 10–24-foliolate; leaflets 2–5 × 0.5–1 mm, linear, obtuse to acute and mucronulate at the apex, asymmetric at the base, glabrous, usually not ciliate; main nerve submarginal to central, lateral nerves indistinct; petiole and rhachis together 5–18 mm long, puberulous or glabrous; petiolules very short; stipules 5–15 × 0.5–3 mm, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, unilaterally obliquely appendaged or sometimes subcordate or quite unappendaged, glabrous or ciliolate, entire or 2–3-partite, mostly persistent.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescences terminal and also in upper axils, often forming a terminal panicle, 3–24 cm long, glabrous or sparsely puberulous; peduncles 5–20 mm long; pedicels 3–13 mm long, glabrous or sparsely puberulous; bracts 4–5 × 1–1.5 mm, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, entire, denticulate or 2-fid, ± ciliolate, very deciduous; bracteoles 3–4 × 1 mm, ovate-lanceolate, deciduous.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx glabrous, 2-lipped; lips 5–8 × 3.5–4.5 mm, oblong, not or scarcely ciliolate, one 2-lobed the other 3-lobed.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Standard yellow or orange-yellow, 7–10 × 3–4.5 mm, violin-shaped or ± rectangular, slightly emarginate; wings and keel yellow, the petals of the latter not laciniate.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit of 1–2 articles joined by a very narrow neck; articles semicircular, 5–8 × 4.5–6.5 mm, glabrous, reticulate and finely covered with raised dots when adult.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds dark purplish-brown, 4.7 × 3 × 1.2 mm, semicircular-ellipsoid; hilum small, almost circular, eccentric.