Fabaceae
Ophrestia

Ophrestia digitata (Harms) Verdc.

First published in Kew Bull. 24: 258 (1970)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Tanzania. It 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
Perennial prostrate herb with several branches up to 50 cm. long, radiating from a slender fusiform rootstock 14–18 cm. long.
Morphology Stem
Stems covered with spreading blackish or white bristly hairs.
Morphology Leaves
Leaves digitately 3–5-foliolate; leaflets narrowly elliptic, 1·5–5 cm. long, 0·4–1·5 cm. wide, acute at the apex, cuneate at the base, pilose with white hairs, subplicate, the nerves very impressed above, prominent beneath; petioles 1–3 mm. long; petiolules 1 mm. long; stipules linear, 5–7 mm. long, pilose.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Inflorescences axillary, ascending, subglobose, 1–1·5 cm. long, 1–2 cm. wide; peduncles 1·5–4·5 cm. long, hairy like the stems; pedicels 1·5 mm. long; flowers paired on the rhachis; bracts linear-lanceolate, 3·5 mm. long; bracteoles linear, 2 mm. long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx
Calyx covered with dark blackish-brown bristly hairs; tube 1·5–2 mm. long; lobes narrowly triangular, 2 mm. long, the upper pair joined for two-thirds of their length to form a bifid lobe.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
Standard purplish-mauve, darker outside, violin-shaped, 7 mm. long, 3 mm. wide, strigose outside with white and brown hairs; wings and tip of keel purplish-mauve, hairy.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Pods not known.
Habitat
Forest edges, upland grassland with scattered trees and shrub clumps; 1950 m.
Distribution
T7 not known elsewhere
[FTEA]

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation
Insufficiently known
Ecology
Africa: Afromontane grassland, Montane wooded grassland
Morphology General Habit
Perennial, Not climbing, Herb
[ILDIS]

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/179284/1573813

Conservation
EN - endangered
[IUCN]

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
[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/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/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