Source:
SSA
Description:
Erect or decumbent herbs or shrublets. Leaves pinnate; leaflets in 6-12 pairs, opposite, asymmetric at base, stipulate; stipules conspicuous, appendaged at base, with appendage 2-auricled, one ear rounded and short, the other linear and longer, persistent. Flowers in short, dense, axillary, scorpioid cymes; bracts entire, scarious, brownish, caducous, with persistent bracteoles below calyx. Calyx 2-lipped. Petals: vexillum +/- orbicular; keel petals united dorsally, free at apex. Stamens 10, alternately long and short, united into a tube for two-thirds, split above. Ovary shortly stipitate, with 2-9 ovules; style inflexed, glabrous; stigma terminal. Pod enclosed within accrescent calyx, jointed; joints indehiscent. Seeds reniform. x= 19.
Distribution:
Species +/- 30 in Old World tropics, a few in Africa; 1 in sthn Afr.: Smithia erubescens (E.Mey.) Baker f., the four northern provinces, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and the N Eastern Cape.
Classification:
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