Lotononis

Lotononis is a genus of annuals, perennials, shrubby herbs and shrublets in the Fabaceae or pea family.

The leaves are alternate, rarely opposite and usually petioled or stalked. The leaf structure is mostly three-foliolate or up to eight-foliolate, rarely simple or single-foliolate. The leaflets often have no petiolules. Small or leaf-like stipules are mostly single below the petioles, occasionally paired or absent.

The flowers grow at stem-tips or from leaf axils, solitary, in twos or threes, sometimes in heads or racemes and usually stalked, sometimes with bracts but no bracteoles. The calyx is tubular in a bell-shape, sometimes inflated and ending in five lobes, one of which is narrow, the others partly fused.

The flowers resemble the shape of peaflowers. Flower colour is yellow, sometimes blue and rarely pink, white, pale purple or violet, while some are bicoloured. The banner petal is oval to oblong and clawed, sometimes hairy on the outside. The clawed wings are sometimes shorter than the keel and eared at the base. The keel is clawed, eared at the base and convex in shape.

The unequal stamens have joined filaments, the tube usually split to the base. The ovary is sessile or short-stalked, bearing a variable number of ovules. The curved style tapers to its tip, sometimes hairy near the base and topped by a tiny, head-like stigma.

The fruit pod is sometimes short-stalked, flat or swollen, linear to oblong or ovate. The seeds are nearly round, sometimes oblique and attached by long funicles (stalks).

There are about 150 Lotononis species found in Africa, Europe and Asia, 144 of which in southern Africa. Some of the species are palatable and readily browsed by game and stock.

The plant in picture is Lotononis dahlgrenii (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007).