INDIGOFERA spinosa(Boiss.) Schweinf. var. spiniflora [family LEGUMINOSAE-PAPILIONOIDEAE], in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 4, app. 2: 237 (1896). [type as above]
Information
Much-branched shrublet or woody herb, young stems appressed silvery. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate; rhachis up to 10 mm long including a 2–8 mm long petiole; leaflets cuneate-obovate to oblanceolate, up to 10(–15) x 4(–6) mm, both sides silvery. Axis of inflorescence up to 5 cm long ending in a green glabrescent weak spine. Racemes up to 20-flowered, sessile. Calyx c. 2 mm long, divided to below the middle. Standard pubescent outside, persistent. Stamens 3–3.5 mm long. Pod reflexed, ± torulose, the swellings in the plane of the sutures coinciding with constrictions in the plane at right angles and vice versa, c. 10–20 x 2 mm, silvery or rarely subglabrous, almost indehiscent, c. 4–6-seeded.
Typical I. spiniflora, with strongly torulose pods and seeds constricted in the middle and with thickened ends (e.g. Thulin 4276), is found mainly in N1–3, but appears to intergrade with forms with less torulose pods and more or less rectangular seeds. Such forms were placed in “ I. sp. D” by Thulin, Leg. Eth. (1983). The richer material now available shows that a clear distinction is difficult to make and “ I. sp. D” is here included in I. spiniflora.
