Aspalathus spinosa subsp. spinosa flower and bud

From the side, the Aspalathus spinosa subsp. spinosa flower shows its slightly deeper yellow banner flexed erectly, the similarly coloured oblong wings angled out laterally. The porrect or forwardly protruding keel bends up strongly in its upper half, a slightly paler yellow. The keel is hairless, the backs of the banner and wings slightly hairy.

The corolla is more open and slender-limbed than some other, more compact Aspalathus flowers. The sparsely hairy calyx tube or cup is well longer than the five small, pointed lobes at its tip.

Flowering happens over a long season, from late winter to autumn. The photo was taken in May.

Pollination is at least partly performed by butterflies. One of them is called the Montagu copper or Poeclimitis uranus.

The long, thread-like leaflets in picture are dull green to dark green, faintly hairy or sparsely covered in very short down. Some leaflets curve, their tips pointed but indistinctly (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Pooley, 1998; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://www.worldfloraonline.org).