Lessertia frutescens

Lessertia frutescens, previously Sutherlandia frutescens and commonly known as kankerbos (cancer bush) and many other names in Afrikaans, grows into an erect or sprawling shrublet, from 50 cm to 1,5 m in height.

The blue-green pinnate leaves have oblong leaflets that may be hairless. The racemes of red pea-shaped flowers have large, banner and keel petals but small wing petals hidden within the calyx. The large inflated pods appear papery when ripe.

The species distribution is large, mainly in the western and central parts of South Africa, with a small additional area in Mpumalanga. Subsp. frutescens and subsp. microphylla are widely distributed over much of South Africa with considerable overlap in distribution, while subsp. speciosa only occurs in the Northern Cape.

The habitat is diverse, the plants growing on shale and sandstone flats and slopes among various vegetation types, including karoid and other semi-arid scrub and renosterveld. None of the three subspecies is considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; http://www.sutherlandia.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).

(See also the Plant Record on this plant.)