Lessertia perennans (Jacq.) DC.

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

Morphology General Habit

Erect perennial herb or subshrub up to 130 cm high, from a woody taproot.

Morphology Stem

Stems simple or branched from the base, erect or divaricate, herbaceous and pithy above, striate, yellowish-brown, thinly silky-villous with scattered white hairs.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves 4–7.5 cm long; leaflets 3–10 on each side of the rhachis, opposite or subopposite, 7–15 × 3–6 mm, elliptic to ovate-elliptic, acute and mucronate at the apex, rounded at the base, silky-villous with scattered white hairs on both surfaces; terminal leaflet as long as the others; petiole 5–12 mm long, thinly silky-canescent; rhachis 1.4–5 cm long, sulcate on the upper side; petiolules 1–1.5 mm long; stipules 5–6 mm long, lanceolate-acuminate, silky-villous, membranaceous, persistent.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Racemes up to 15 cm long in the upper axils, laxly many-flowered, silky-villous; peduncle 3.5–6 cm long; bracts 2 mm long, lanceolate-acuminate; pedicels 5–7 mm long; bracteoles minute, linear, very often absent.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx 3–4 mm long, campanulate, subequally 5-toothed; teeth 1–2 mm long, lanceolate-acuminate, with scattered white hairs.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla 7–8 mm long, pale purplish, mauve-red, blue or sometimes white, glabrous; standard 7–8 × 6–7 mm, suborbicular or broadly obovate, shallowly emarginate at the apex, abruptly tapering at the base into a 1–2 mm long claw; wings up to 7 × 2.2 mm, each obliquely ovate, rounded at the apex, auriculate above the 2 mm long claw; keel petals 6–7 mm long, the blades c. 3 mm wide, obovate, rounded at the apex, auriculate at the base, the claws c. 2 mm long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Free parts of the filaments up to 3 mm long; free filament 4–5 mm long, dilated at the base; anthers 0.2 mm long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Pistil

Ovary shortly stipitate, c. 4 mm long, 2–5(6)-ovulate; style 2.5 mm long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Pod 15–20 × 9–13 mm, obliquely elliptic to ovate, mucronate at the apex with the upcurved persistent style, membranaceous; stipe c. 1 mm long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds 2–5(6) in each pod, 2 × 1.5 mm, reniform, blackish.