Polhillia
Source:
SSA
Description:
Small, erect, much-branched shrubs up to 1.5 m tall. Leaves digitately 3-foliolate, shortly petiolate; stipules involucrate, adnate to petiole, completely sheathing twigs and clasping the stem. Flowers pale to deep golden-yellow, 1 or 2(-4), terminal on short shoots; bracts small, linear-lanceolate; ebracteolate. Calyx shorter than corolla, 2-lipped; upper lobes separate or somewhat united, triangular; lower lip formed from fusion of lateral and carinal lobes into a lip with 3 short teeth, fusion of lobes higher than vexillar lobes. Petals: vexillum broadly ovate, apex rounded or emarginate, claw less than half as long as blade; wing petals and keel petals +/- equally long, both slightly pocketed, sculpturing upper basal and upper central or upper basal left central, intercostal, lunulate, becoming diffuse in patches or lunulate-lamellate. Stamens monadelphous; staminal tube split adaxially, consisting of 5 linear-oblong, basifixed anthers alternating with 5 ovate dorsifixed anthers. Ovary sessile or subsessile, compressed, densely hairy, 7-10-ovuled; style curving gently upwards to a small capitate stigma. Pod chartaceous, subsessile, narrowly oblong, sometimes slightly curved, plicate or flattened and impressed between seeds, indehiscent. Seeds dull, khaki to dark brown. x= 8 (1 report, polyploidy).
Distribution:
Species +/- 7, endemic to the Western Cape.