Description:
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Perennial prostrate herb with 5–20 branches 8–20 cm long from a tuberous rootstock which bears narrow roots 11–15 cm long; young shoots sparsely setulose. Leaves 8–36-foliolate; leaflets 4–12 × 1.5–4 mm, oblong, rounded and mucronulate at the apex, truncate or obliquely rounded at the base, glabrous, minutely obscurely punctulate; main nerve central; rhachis and petiole together 1–4.5 cm long, ± setulose; petiolules short; stipules 8–15 × 2.5–4 mm, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate at the apex, subcordate or appendaged on one side at the base, leaf-like, glabrous, nervose, persistent. Inflorescences axillary, shorter than the leaves, 5–6 cm long, 5–6-flowered, glabrous or sparsely setulose; peduncles 1.5–2 cm long; pedicels 2.5–6.5 mm long; bracts deciduous or subpersistent, 2-fid or 3-fid, the lobes 2.5–5 × 0.5–0.8 mm, lanceolate; bracteoles 3.5 × 0.5–1 mm, lanceolate, acute. Calyx glabrous, 2-lipped; lips 6–7.5 × 3–4 mm, ovate-oblong, one subacute, the other minutely 3-fid. Standard apricot-coloured, 7.5–9.5 × 3.5–4.5 mm, somewhat violin-shaped, slightly widened above; wings free; keel petals not laciniate. Fruit of 1–2 articles joined by a narrow neck; articles ± semicircular, 6 × 3.5 mm, glabrous.
From FZ, Vol 3, Part 6, (2000) Author: B. Verdcourt |