Source:
SSA
Description:
A much-branched shrub or small tree, densely leafy and silky-villous. Leaves alternate, green or grey, aromatic, petiolate, imparipinnate; leaflets in 3 or 4 pairs, with minute leaflets between, incised, toothed, sessile; stipules adnate to petiole. Inflorescence a densely aggregated, terminal spike, with shortly pedunculate flowers. Flowers bisexual. Calyx: tube obconic, villous, +/- constricted in throat, persistent; lobes 10-12 in 2 rows, valvate, outer ovate, inner linear-lanceolate, longer than outer. Petals 5 (or 6), +/- obovate, deciduous, yellowish green or yellow. Disc lining calyx tube annular and nearly closing mouth of calyx tube, villous at mouth. Stamens 10-12, inserted on disc; anthers didymous, almost versatile. Gynoecium of 2-4 free carpels; ovules solitary in each carpel, pendulous; styles terete, exserted; stigmas lateral, channelled, hooked. Fruit: membranous achenes enclosed in receptacle.
Distribution:
Monotypic: Leucosidea sericea Eckl. & Zeyh. (Oldwood or Ouhout), Zimbabwe to Northern Province, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Eastern Cape; usually confined to stream banks and kloofs at high altitudes, sometimes invades overgrazed and disturbed areas.
Classification:
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