Leaves glaucous, pinnately 3-foliolate; leaflets lanceolate, apiculate; stipules lanceolate, produced downwards at base; stipels paired, persistent
Flowers blue, paired at top of axillary peduncles; bracts subulate-lanceolate; bracteoles 2, close to calyx
Calyx with broadly campanulate tube, 4-lobed; 2 upper lobes fused
Petals: vexillum clawed with callosities at base of limb; wings and keel nearly as long as vexillum, auriculate at base of limb
Stamens with vexillary filament adnate for basal one-third; anthers uniform, dorsifixed, versatile
Pod linear, turgid, dehiscent, valves curling when ripe, with spongy tissue between seeds
Seeds several, oblong, kidney-shaped, with small hilum in middle
Nomenclature:
Otoptera DC.
Candolle: 249, t. 42 (1825)
Harvey: 239 (1862)
Burtt Davy: 421 (1932)
Hutchinson: 430 (1964)
Schreiber: 93 (1970)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 2, Africa
Southern Africa: Species 1: Otoptera burchellii DC. (= Vigna burchellii (DC.) Harv.), Namibia, Botswana, North-West, Northern Province and Northern Cape
References:
BURTT DAVY, J. 1932. A manual of the flowering plants and ferns of the Transvaal with Swaziland, South Africa. Longmans, Green and Co., London
CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1825. Mémoire sur la famille des Légumineuses. Belin, Paris
HARVEY, W.H. 1862. Leguminosae. Flora capensis 2
HUTCHINSON, J. 1964. Order LEGUMINALES. The genera of flowering plants 1. Oxford University Press, Oxford
SCHREIBER, A. 1970. Fabaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 60
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Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
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