Crotalaria praetexta Polhill

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

Morphology General Habit

Erect annual 10–30 cm tall, sometimes with a few weak branches from the base, with numerous mostly suppressed flowering branches above; stem densely covered with short stiff appressed to slightly spreading hairs.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves mostly 3-foliolate, but with reduced and 1-foliolate leaves on abbreviated flowering branches; leaflets 7–35 × 2–13 mm, oblong-lanceolate to elliptic-oblong or obovate, appressed puberulous beneath; petiole 3–18 mm long, narrowly winged; stipules 0.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers in clusters or short racemes, terminal and on much reduced 1–2 leaved branches in the axils below, also in the axils below that; bracts 0.5–1 mm long, linear; pedicel 1.5–3 mm long, without bracteoles.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx 2–3 mm long, strigulose-puberulous, densely so on the tube, less densely on the lobe surfaces but very densely in a fringe on the lobe margins; upper lobes obliquely triangular-lanceolate, curved on the upper side, 2–3 times as long as the tube.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Standard elliptic-obovate, yellow lined reddish-brown, tomentellous outside; wings ± as long as the keel; keel 4–5 mm long, angular, with a twisted beak.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Pod sessile, 3.5–4 mm long, ovoid-globose, appressed puberulous, 2-seeded.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds 1.5–2 mm long, oblique-cordiform, smooth.