Melolobium candicans
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Image 1
Habit
20 Feb 2018
Image 2
Spiny branches
20 Feb 2018
Image 3
Spiny branches
20 Feb 2018
Image 4
Tri-foliate leaves
20 Feb 2018
Image 5
Straight pod
20 Feb 2018
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Full name: | Melolobium candicans (E.Mey.) Eckl. & Zeyh. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Heuningbossie, Heuningbos, Stroopbos, Stroopbossie, Voëltjie-kan-nie-sit-nie |
| English common name(s): | Honey bush |
| Synonym(s): | Dichilus candicans E.Mey. Melolobium candicans (E.Mey.) Eckl. & Zeyh. accepted by FSA Melolobium decorum Dummer fide South Africain J. Bot 72: 89 (2006). Melolobium parviflorum Benth. fide South Africain J. Bot 72: 89 (2006). Melolobium squarrosum Eckl. & Zeyh. fide South Africain J. Bot 72: 89 (2006). Sphingium velutinum E.Mey. fide South Africain J. Bot 72: 89 (2006). |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | M. candicans has straight pods. (from www.ispot.org.za) Divaricately much-branched, scarcely glandular, spiny; twigs velvetty-canescent; leaflets glabrescent; stipules semi-cordate-ovate; bracts shorter than the calyx-tube; calyx villous or glabrescent, shorter than the corolla, its segments ovate; legume straight, 4–6 seeded, villous-hirsute. A rigid, spreading or depressed, spiny bush, laxly or densely branched: all the younger branches canescent. Leaflets narrow-obovate, obtuse, folded together when dry, 2–3 lines long. Flowers 2–3 sub-sessile, near the base of rigid, spine-tipped ramuli. The calyces are sometimes viscidulous. Legumes 0.75-inch long, sub-moniliform, pointed, nearly straight. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) Divaricately branched, spiny shrub, 0.3–0.5 m high, covered with white hairs. Leaves stipulate; leaflets, oblong to broadly obovate, (3–)4–9(–10) x 2–4 mm, with sessile glands, apex emarginate; petiole 2–5 mm long, stipules semi-cordate to auriculate, 2–4 x 1–3 mm. Inflorescence terminal, (10–)20–35(45–) mm long, with 2–3(–6) flowers; flowers 6–8(–12) mm long; bracts cordate, 2–4 x 2–4 mm; bracteoles ovate, 2–4 x 1.0–1.5 mm. Calyx shortly bilabiate, with sessile glands, hairy; upper lobes acute; upper lip 5–6(–8) mm long, the apices obtuse, upper sinus 1.5–2.5 mm deep; lateral sinus 2.5–5.0 mm deep; lower lobes acute; lower lip 6–9 mm long, the apices obtuse, lower sinuses 0.5–1.0 mm deep. Corolla yellow; standard suborbicular, 6–10 x 3–5(–7) mm, with a well-developed, channelled claw 2–4 mm long; wing petals oblong, sculptured, 6–9 x 2–3 mm, with a linear claw 2–4 mm long; keel petals shorter than the wing petals, 5–7 x 2–3 mm, with a linear claw 2–4 mm long. Gynoecium narrowly oblong, densely hairy. Fruit narrowly oblong, straight, 10–15(–17) x 3–4 mm, very hairy, 2–3(–4)-seeded; seeds round, 1.4–2.6 x 1.4–2.3 mm, pale green, pale yellow, brown, pale yellow mottled brown. (from A revision of the genus Melolobium (Genisteae, Fabacaeae), Moteetee and Van Wyk, 2006) |
| 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 |
