Lotononis pulchella

Lotononis pulchella is a shrublet bearing trifoliolate leaves comprising oval leaflets covered in silvery hairs. The plants reach about 1 m in height.

The blue flowers grow in flat clusters, having the pea-flower shape found in the Fabaceae family. Each flower has a small yellow spot in the centre at the base of the petals. The standard and wing petals are longer than the keel. The wings and keel are hairy.

L. pulchella grows in the Eastern Cape, the Free State and the south-west of KwaZulu-Natal; also in Lesotho. The photo was taken in the Sani Pass.

It is mostly seen in grassy spots among rocks on mountain slopes. The species is not considered threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

The species was previously called Buchenroedera tenuifolia (Manning, 2009; http://redlist.sanbi.org).