Lotus mlanjeanus J.B.Gillett

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation

Insufficiently known

Morphology General Habit

Perennial, Not climbing, Herb/Shrub

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

Morphology General Habit

Undershrub or perennial herb with numerous straggling herbaceous or rarely woody stems from a woody rootstock.

Morphology Stem

Stems procumbent, up to 1 m long and 1.5(2.5) mm in diameter, red or light green becoming reddish with age, with an indumentum of sparse, ± appressed or short arching hairs.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves usually well spaced, 5-foliolate; rhachis 2–5(6) mm long, canaliculate, pubescent; basal leaflets smaller than the others, 4.5–10 × 3–6.5 mm, asymmetrically ovate, obtuse or subacute at the apex, obtuse at the base with a basal angle commonly 90–100º; apical leaflets up to 20 × 7.5 mm, the terminal one larger than the others, cuneate-obovate to oblanceolate, acute to obtuse at the apex; all leaflets sparsely pubescent to subglabrous, sometimes only with a few short hairs on the midrib and petiolules, densely red-dotted above; stipular glands blackish, usually easily visible.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Umbels 3–8-flowered; peduncle 15–70 mm long, strigose to subglabrous; foliage leaf on the peduncle 1–3-foliolate, leaf-like; pedicels 1.5–3 mm long, subglabrous; glands (bracts) at the base of the pedicels blackish.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx subglabrous, light green tinged red, often the tube red overall; hypanthium c. 1 mm long, calyx tube 2–2.5 mm long above the insertion of the stamens; lobes 2.5–3.5 mm long, triangular-cuspidate.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla white or pale pink, the standard red-veined or sometimes reddish or brownish on back; standard 9–10 × 5–7 mm, slightly violin-shaped, wedge-shaped at the base, truncate to retuse at the apex, the margins thickened and infolded over c. 4 mm from the base; wings with a claw 3–3.5 mm long, curved, the blade 7.5–9 × 3.5–4.5 mm, oblong, laterally pouched, auriculate; keel as long as the wings, curved, pointed, the claws c. 3 mm long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens Filaments

Filament sheath c. 6 mm long; free parts of the shorter filaments c. 2.5 mm long, those of the longer filaments c. 4 mm long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Pistil

Ovary c. 6 mm long, glabrous, c. 23-ovulate; style c. 4 mm long, slightly curved upwards.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Pod c. 30 × 3.7 mm, terete, brown.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds c. 2 mm long, ovoid, brown.