Crotalaria serengetiana Polhill

First published in Kew Bull. 22: 219 (1968)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is E. Tropical Africa. It is an annual or subshrub and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome.

Descriptions

Leguminosae, J. B. Gillett, R. M. Polhill & B. Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1971

Morphology General Habit
Erect or spreading annual or short-lived perennial, up to 5 dm. tall, the lower branches often becoming long and prostrate or decumbent.
Morphology Stem
Stem pilose with fine silvery-grey spreading hairs, ultimately glabrescent.
Morphology Leaves
Leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, up to 28–40 mm. long, 8–12 mm. wide, bluntly pointed or rounded at the apex, narrowed to the base, rather densely pilose on both surfaces; petiole up to 20–40 mm. long.
Morphology Leaves Stipules
Stipules filiform, up to 8–12 mm. long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Racemes lax, up to 13 cm. long, ± 7–12-flowered; bracts subulate or filiform, 3–8 mm. long; bracteoles curved-ascending from just below the calyx, linear, 3–5 mm. long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx
Calyx 10–13 mm. long, densely spreading pilose; upper lobes narrowly oblong, 3–4 times as long as the tube.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
Standard obovate, dull yellow-green, becoming strongly suffused with blue inside, densely pubescent outside; wings oblong, as long as the keel; keel subangular in the lower half, with a straight un-twisted beak, 11–14 mm. long, yellow-green or suffused with blue towards the tip, conspicuously lanate-pubescent along the upper margin proximal to the beak.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Pod shortly stipitate, ellipsoid-clavate, ± 25–32 mm. long, 8–10 mm. across, uniformly rather densely spreading pilose, ± 24-seeded.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds
Seeds oblique-cordiform, ± 2·5–3·5 mm. long, obscurely rugulose, with the raised areas concentric towards the margin, radial towards the hilum
Habitat
Grassland; 1500–1700 m.
Distribution
K6 T1 T2 not known elsewhere
[FTEA]

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation
Not Threatened
Ecology
Africa: Somalia-Masai grasslands
Morphology General Habit
Annual, Not climbing, Herb
[ILDIS]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: threatened. Confidence: low confidence
[AERP]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • International Legume Database and Information Service

    • International Legume Database and Information Service (ILDIS) V10.39 Nov 2011
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • World Checklist of Vascular plants (WCVP)

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0