Eriosema scioanum Avetta

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation

Not Threatened

Ecology

Africa: Afromontane grassland, Sudanian grasslands, Lake Victoria regional transition zone; grasslands, Afromontane(upland) bushland and thicket., Lake Victoria regional mosaic; bushland and thicket

Morphology General Habit

Perennial, Not climbing, Herb

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

Morphology General Habit

Perennial herb, prostrate or sprawling or with erect or ascending shoots from a prostrate stem or underground rhizome, rarely erect, 0·2–1·2 m. tall or long, branched.

Morphology Branches

Branches usually covered with spreading ferruginous hairs or adpressed pubescent.

Morphology Leaves

Leaflets 3, elliptic or almost round, rarely narrowly elliptic, 0·8–7 cm. long, 0·6–3·8 cm. wide, acute or obtuse and mucronulate at the apex, ± rounded at the base, softly pubescent and covered with glands on both surfaces; venation often raised beneath and surface sometimes plicate; petiole 1·1–4·5 cm. long; rhachis 0·5–1 mm. long; petiolules 2 mm. long; stipules mostly brown, lanceolate, 1·1–1·5 cm. long, 3–5 mm. wide, hairy, closely veined.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Racemes terminal and axillary, 2–10 cm. long, 1·4–1·8 cm. wide, above a ferruginous peduncle (3–)5·5–19cm. long; pedicels ±1 mm. long; bracts persistent or deciduous, linear, 6–9 mm. long, 0·5–1·2 mm. wide, hairy.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx with spreading or adpressed silvery hairs, glandular, 4·5–5 mm. long; lobes unequal, triangular, shorter than the tube.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Standard typically dark outside, brownish, crimson, purple or almost black, but in some variants yellow, yellowish or white inside with dark lines, broadly elliptic, 7–8 mm. long, 3–5 mm. wide, glabrous or with very few scattered hairs and median longitudinal area sparsely glandular; wings white or yellow; keel greenish or greenish-yellow, sometimes brown or purple at the apex; all petals with long claws.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Pods oval-oblong, 8–12 mm. long, 6–9 mm. wide, covered with long ferruginous hairs and also with very fine pubescence and glands.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds oblong, brown with purple markings, longest dimension 3·5 mm., shorter dimension 2·5 mm., 1·2 mm. thick; rim-aril white.

Distribution

As above with addition of subsp. scioanum in Ethiopia

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/172635919/176376628

Conservation

LC - least concern