Kotschya platyphylla (Brenan) Verdc.

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: confident

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation

Insufficiently known

Ecology

Africa: Afromontane(upland) bushland and thicket.

Morphology General Habit

Perennial, Not climbing, Shrub/Tree

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

Morphology General Habit

Shrub or slender-stemmed tree 4.5 (or ? more) m. tall.

Morphology Stem

Stems minutely asperous with short very thick-based hairs but without longer hairs.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves 18–30-foliolate; leaflets narrowly oblong, 0.4–1.1 cm. long, 1–4.2 mm. wide, acute or subacute at the apex, usually distinctly falcate, obliquely rounded at the base, glabrescent save for ciliate lower margin and short thick hairs on the almost marginal main nerve beneath; petiole and rhachis together 2.5–5 cm. long; petiolules obsolete; stipules narrowly triangular or lanceolate, 6.5–9 mm. long, 1.5–2.5 mm. wide, ciliate, persistent.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescences axillary, dense but not strobilate (or scarcely so); rhachis 1.5–2.5 cm. long, covered with long golden-yellow hairs; peduncle 1–1.7 cm. long, golden hairy; pedicels 4–7 mm. long; bracts broadly elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 4.5–7 mm. long, 2.3–2.8 mm. wide, scarious, nervose, pubescent and ciliate; bracteoles oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, 3.5–5.5 mm. long, 1.1–1.5 mm. wide, acute or subacute at the apex, pubescent.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx covered with short golden pubescence and rather longer tubercular-based hairs, ± 1.3–1.4 cm. long, the upper lip divided for ± one-fifth of its length into 2 obliquely rounded lobes, the lower lip deeply 3-lobed, the lobes narrowly oblong or oblong-elliptic, 6–7 mm. long, obtuse, the inner the narrowest.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Standard yellow, rounded, 1–1.2(–1.4) cm. long, 7.5–9 mm. wide, glabrous; wings and keel probably yellow.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Ovary

Ovary 3–4-ovuled, pubescent.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit of 2–3 articles, each compressed-ellipsoid, 3 mm. long, 2.2 mm. wide, pubescent.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seed chestnut, ellipsoid-reniform, longest dimension 2.2 mm., shorter dimension 1.5 mm., 1 mm. thick, slightly beaked to the outside of the minute eccentric hilum.

Habitat

“Gregarious on exposed ridges”; 1800–1900 m.

Distribution

T7 not known elsewhere