Crotalaria willdenowiana

Erect perennial herbs or undershrubs, 20-75 cm high; rootstock woody, branched, tinged deep yellow; stems copiously branched, spreading, terete, sericeous. Leaves 3-foliolate, up to 2.5 cm long; leaflets 1-2 x 0.3-0.6, chartaceous, oblanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, cuneate at base, emarginate and apiculate at apex, sericeous on both surfaces; petioles 4-6 mm long, petiolule 0.5-1.0 mm long; stipules ovate- lanceolate, ca 4 mm long. Racemes terminal and axillary, up to 3 cm long; peduncles ca 2 cm long, hairy; bracts linear, ca 2 mm long; bracteoles ca 1.5 mm long, subapical on pedicel; pedicels 2.0-2.5 mm long, hairy. Flowers 2-10, 8-10 mm long. Calyx 2-3 mm long, dense-pubescent, 5-lobed, tube ca 1.5 mm long, lobes divided to half their length, upper 2 lanceolate, lower 3 linear. Corolla yellow, twice as long as calyx; vexillum orbicular, 9-10 x 7-8 mm, obtuse and apiculate at apex, hairy on the back; wing petals oblong, 6-8 x 2-3 mm, obtuse; keel petals 6-8 x 2-4 mm, beak spirally twisted. Staminal sheath ca 2 mm long; free filaments 3-6 mm long; longer anthers oblong, ca 1.5 mm long; shorter anthers ovoid, ca 0.7 mm long. Ovary sessile, ca 3 mm long, 2-ovuled, pubescent; style ca 3 mm long. Pods sessile, obliquely subglobose, 4-5 mm long, strongly beaked, pubescent, twice as long as calyx; seeds 2, reniform, 1-2 x 2-3 mm, grey, shiny.