Tephrosia polyzyga Benth.

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, continuous with stem, 25-100 mm long, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, leaflets 13-45, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves. Pedicel present, 4-5.5 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present and persistent. Calyx 4-5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 8-9.6 mm long, uniformly coloured, yellow; claws present; standard 8-8.5 mm long, hairy at least in part, not auriculate, wings 7-8.2 mm long, not auriculate, keel 6-7 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.3-0.4 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments united in an open sheath with one free stamen, 6-7 mm long. Ovary sessile or subsessile, hairy or glandular; style 8-9.5 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, flattened at apex. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 40-50 mm long, 5-6 mm wide, sessile or subsessile, constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, hairy, with simple hairs, not beaked. Flowers in March. Occurs in the Northern Botanical Province, in the Victoria Bonaparte IBRA regions.