Crotalaria densicephala Welw. ex Baker

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation

Not Threatened

Ecology

Africa: Zambezian woodland, Sudanian woodland, Afromontane grassland

Morphology General Habit

Perennial, Not climbing, Herb

Leguminosae, various authors. Flora Zambesiaca 3:7. 2003

Morphology General Habit

Bushy herb, up to 1.2 m tall, but sometimes flowering when no more than 20 cm tall, densely and coarsely hairy, sometimes tomentose.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves shortly petiolate, all 3-foliolate or sometimes the uppermost 1-foliolate; leaflets 3.8 × 1.2–4.5 cm, elliptic-oblong or elliptic to obovate, densely hairy on both surfaces or only beneath, sometimes tomentose and felty; stipules mostly 1.5–5 mm long, subulate, sometimes hidden by indumentum.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Racemes dense, few–many-flowered; bracts 2–4 mm long, linear to linear-lanceolate; bracteoles on the short pedicels, rather smaller.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx 7–9 mm long, pilose on the tube but the lobes often subglabrous except for the densely ciliate margins; lobes attenuate, 2.5–4 times as long as the tube.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Standard elliptic or elliptic-obovate, yellow, glabrous outside; wings mostly a little shorter than the keel; keel semicircular, with a rather small narrow beak, not strongly crested, 7.5–10 mm long, lanate-ciliate but not hairy on lateral surfaces.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Pod shortly stipitate, 1.3–2 cm long, oblong-ellipsoid to oblong-obovoid, rather densely and irregularly covered with long spreading hairs, mostly 4–6-seeded.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds c. 6 mm long, obliquely oblong-cordiform, smooth or granulate, ochre.