Aeschynomene L.

Usually a slender shrub but occasionally a small tree. Plants aromatic. Stems covered with short glandular hairs. Leaves up to c. 8 cm long, pinnate, 8-32-foliolate; petiole and rhachis with short glandular hairs. Leaflets linear-oblong, 3-18 mm long, slightly subcordate at the base, mostly hairless; stipules conspicuous but quickly deciduous, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 7-22 mm long. Flowers in many-flowered racemes in the axils of the upper leaves, together often appearing as a branched terminal inflorescence; peduncles and pedicels with short glandular hairs. Calyx reddish, 2-lipped; one lip more or less entire, the other 3-fid. Standard yellow or orange-yellow with red veining, broadly elliptic, 10-16 cm long; wings orange-yellow, paler at the base, with red streaks at the apex; keel pale yellow. Fruit with 3-7 semicircular articles, up to 8 × 6 mm, joined by narrow necks, covered with short, glandular hairs.

Annual or perennial herbs, subshrubs or shrubs. Stipules present, stipels 0. Leaves alternate or ± paripinnate, 2-many-foliolate. Leaflets subopposite to alternate, asymmetric at base. Inflorescences axillary, less often terminal or leaf-opposed. Bracts entire or 2-3-fid; bracteoles mostly deciduous. Calyx 2-lipped. Corolla usually yellow, orange-yellow or orange, often lined or flushed with purple. Pod linear or elliptic with 1-many articles, usually straight or curved.

Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Limpopo, Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Common in Eastern Highlands