Erect, annual herb, 15-50 cm tall, branched, somewhat woody at the base. Stems striate, subglabrous to viscid glandular-hirsute. Leaves aromatic, (3-) 5-7 (-9)-folio-late, petiolate, decreasing in size upwards and passing gradually into the sessile bracts; petioles up to 5 cm long, glandular hispid; leaflets linear-oblong to linear oblanceolate, 0-8-3 cm long, 1-5 mm broad, subacute to rounded at the apex, cuneate at the base, glandular-puberulous, especially on the marÂgins and the nerves below. Inflorescence a terminal raceme elongating considerably in fruit; bracts similar to the leaves but smaller, shortly petiolate to subsessile, 3-5-foliolate and with more rounded leaflets; pedicels slender, 7-17 mm long, glandular-puberulous. Sepals linear, 5-6 mm long, subulate, glanÂdular-pubescent. Petals obovate-oblanceolate, 1-1-1-9 cm long, 3-6 mm broad, mauve to purple with a median yellow band outlined in deeper purple, rounded at the apex, narrowed at the base to a claw about one third the length of the petal. Stamens 10—11(—12), all fertile, mauve, the 2-4 lower longer and stouter, eventually exceeding the petals and with anthers 2-5 mm long, the remainder subequal to the petals with anthers 1 ? 5-2 mm long. Ovary glandular-puberulous, 1 mm long, on a gynophore 2 mm long; style about 2 mm long; stigma subcapitate. Capsule narrowly linear, 5-8 cm long, 2-3 mm broad, straight, spreading; gynophore (8-)l 1-16(-21) mm long; valves glandular-pubescent with about 7 longitudinal nerves on each valve. Seeds brown, broadly comma-shaped, someÂwhat flattened, 1-5-2 mm in diameter, obscurely wrinkled. Fig. 16 : 6.
