Plants photographed elsewhere in Namibia (not on Kyffhäuser)
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Polygala leptophylla Burch.


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Polygala leptophylla

Image 1
Habit
30 Apr 2011

Polygala leptophylla

Image 2
Unopened flowers
30 Apr 2011

Polygala leptophylla

Image 3
Unopened flowers
30 Apr 2011



Family: Polygalaceae
Full name: Polygala leptophylla Burch.
ID status: Fairly certain
Afrikaans common name(s): Skaap-ertjie, Skaapertjie
English common name(s): -
Synonym(s): Polygala leptophylla Burch. var. leptophylla
Polygala hottentotta var. fleckiana Schinz
Status: Native
Description: Suffruticose, divaricately much branched, glabrous or downy, with terete, straight, and rigid branches; leaves few and distant, patent, linear, obtuse or mucronulate, tapering at base, petiolate; racemes mostly terminal, erect, rigid, elongating, many-flowered; pedicels very short and flowers pendulous; bracts elliptical, obtuse, tardily deciduous; alæ elliptic-oblong, oblique at base, obtuse, midribbed, ant. sepals obovate; keel crested, lat. petals broadly spathulate; capsule oblong-obcordate; seeds densely albo-setose. A small, rigid, much branched undershrub, 1–2 feet high; the peduncles, after the flowers fall, indurating, but not spinous. Leaves 0.5–0.75 inch long; flowers 2–3 lines long, pale, the alæ whitish, with green veins. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis)

Slender, erect perennial herb with woody base, up to 0.3 m. Stems sparsely branched, blue-green, hairless. Leaves linear, up to 20 x 2 mm, green to blue-green, not fleshy; tip pointed or rounded. Flowers similar to pea flower; wing-like inner sepals cream with dark green veins, 6—8 mm long; upper and lateral petals poorly developed; lower petal fused, cream with tip and fringed appendage bright purple. Flowering summer. This small plant is somewhat broom-like. It is extremely widespread in Namibia, absent only from the south-west and north-east. lt also occurs in Botswana and South Africa. (from Wildflowers of the Central Highlands of Namibia, by Coleen Mannheimer)
Link(s) African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science
Kew Herbarium Catalogue
BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium
Züricher Herbarien
iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer)
iNaturalist (Namibia)
iNaturalist (southern Africa)
Flora of Zimbabwe
Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie
Tree Atlas of Namibia
Content last updated: 18 Apr 2024


Note: The identification of some of the plants on this website is not 100% certain. Any comments will be highly appreciated. I would also be willing to supply higher resolution images upon request. Please contact me at the e-mail address given below.

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